The Blamed are not a new name in the Christian punk scene. Their debut release 21 earned the band quite a bit of attention last year, and many people have been waiting for the follow up. A sophomore album often attracts attention. Will it live up to the first? This question was running through my mind as I popped this one into my disc player. It was answered with the first track.
21 was a good album, for its time. Its time is over. Welcome Frail. How do the two compare? The best I can do is this: if you consider 21 a demo, this is the album that came from the demo. The sound is bigger, the band is a band instead of a collection of guests. The project is not bigger as in more instruments--the bass is fuller than it was before, the instruments fill the mix instead of leaving little spaces here and there. Much of the change probably has to do with the slightly more sane recording schedule than the band was offered last time. A lot of the change is also likely the production work of Mark Rodriguez.
As has already been mentioned, this group is now a band. This gives the album and the songwriting a consistency that was lacking on the first effort. They also have a vocalist, and he's a good one. Jeremy Moffett has all of what you could hope for in an old school punk vocalist. He can scream, he can yell, and occasionally, he can sing.
The Blamed's lyrics come firing out of my speakers at a pace matched only by the music. The playing is tight and fast and hard. The whole thing is big and ugly, and sometimes ugly can be a truly beautiful thing.
The lyrical theme is held in the title--we are frail and can be broken. "And here I am/now look at me/I've made myself a miserable wreck/what have I done?/I've turned my back on You," from "Breeze." Strongly tied to that theme is a call to integrity which flows throughout the album. "Feeding the Ignorant," "Difference," and "Guy in a Suit and the Pope" all contain strong calls to the believer and the church to stand and live as what they have claimed to be.
Fans of the Crucified, Crashdog, or 21, this is should be one for you to check out.
Other coverage for this album
The Conqueror Worm Jun/Jul 1995Reviewed by argylleremember the blamed's first album 21? if you weren't too impressed that's okay. neither was i. it sounded like one song over & over to me. now they're back (not long of a wait i might add) with a new vocalist and a new harder punkier sound. these songs don't sound much alike and i must say this cd friggin' rocks! it starts out with the rager "feeding the ignorant." then we get the nice tune…Heaven's Metal #53Reviewed by Jeremy ChoiImagine this: A band releases an album in the middle of one year, only to have their sophomore release early in the next year, with a major line-up change and a different sound . . . and both albums are exceptional! Is this possible? If you've heard The Blamed's Frail, You would probably agree that it certainly is possible. One would only have to play Frail for five minutes to realize that there…Similar sounding releases
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