With guitar sledgehammers and lyrical rivets, the band Stir has built a monument to man's insufficiency. It's a sort of antithesis to the Tower of Babel; while the former was intended to show the unity of man but led to the language barriers, Broken Tongues is a testament that our human words and deeds will always be incomplete without the restoring power of God. Although they wrap their hard rock treatise in minor chords and unsettling harmonies, the band refuses to let the listener wallow in despair. The lyrics always point to hope, from the loud, dysfunctional anthem "Broken Tongues" (which sees the common thread throughout history of nations that thought themselves too important to need salvation) to the moody shuffle of "Joe's Son" (about the Jews who rejected Jesus because they thought He was just one of them) to the creepy metal ballad "Little Love" (a reminder that it only takes a little love to make a big difference in someone's life). A nice touch is the addition of Spanish-language versions of "Joe's Son" and "Higher." Although Stir avoids many of the metal cliches, there's enough of the flavor to narrow the band's reach; Broken Tongues will probably not help the band crossover to fans of punk or hardcore (but then, the fandoms have started to melt together, so who knows?). The album is definitely on target for fans of metal--the eerie guitar solos; the slow pound of guitar riffs; the odd, angular melodies and harmonies; and the occasional dark, acoustic ballad (not to mention the conceptual reach of the lyrics). Broken Tongues is as solid a monument as they come.