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Road to Revelation
Posted July 25, 2008
By Nathan,


Some years back, when Third Day was just creeping over the ten year mark as a band, an interviewer asked lead singer Mac Powell if he thought Third Day would make it as far as twenty years like the Band Avalon. Powell simply said he didn’t think so. Since the band’s debut in 1993 all Third Day has done is dominate the charts and flood the Christian air waves with singles, and with now eleven albums and more than a handful of awards is it possible that the bands fifteen year career is at an end? The CD is called Revelation after all, and the final book in the Bible was named that also.

It took about as much time for Third Day’s first single “call my name” to reach the top of the charts as it does to change the oil. The first thing that’s apparent from the song is that there is some spark to the song, an inspirational flow that is almost perfect, a jump back from the regular worship tunes to the southern rock act that fans were accustomed to. Surrounding that is “this is who I am”, a southern rock tune which puts a big role on the electric guitar and “slow down”, a fast moving, and almost certainly a future hit, and solid rock beat featuring Daughtry. The first half of the album is split into, with the heavier, grittier songs leading off, letting the softer materiel pad the back like the ballad “take is all”, a simple light piece which thrives on emotion. Allowing Flyleaf’s Lacey Mosley vocals take a part in “run to you” is an interesting ingredient which I don’t recall Third Day deploying before in that much of a dose, as the rock song is rough on the chorus but it maintains stability.

The title track isn’t as impressive as previous tracks but it does a decent job, but whoever was taking care of the electric guitar during ”other side” did a poor job because the he guitar gets out of control in a very loud song. Simplicity plays an unwelcome role in as Revelation progresses, simplicity and generic music. The up beat tune of “give love” is a little snappy and the banjo is a nice diversifying tactic, but the song at its heart is almost painfully basic. Lacey Mosley doesn’t seem to go away, because she enters again in “born again”, which would have been straight worship song had it not been for her vocals. “Caught up in yourself” is one of the southern rock tunes that lack fire, and it sounds too much like former tracks. It seems like Third Day ran out of energy when it came to the second half of the CD musically.

Third Day’s writing, more accurately Mac Powell, has always been recognized as impressive, despite their generally shallow singles which “call my name” is no exception. The song’s lyrics seemed to resemble “come on back to me” too much, and say what you will the song really isn’t that deep or original, it simply sounds terrifically emotional and inspirational. Nothing to unheard of is mentioned in the lyrics, “this is who I am” has very little to do with anything and “let me love you” sounds like a regular love song (‘Come on let me love you now/Come on let me love you /And hold you through the storm/I will keep you safe and warm’). “Take it All” has solid lyrics but it says ‘I can’t make it on my own’ which sounds like ‘I’ve got nothing without You’ in “revelation”. And speaking of “revelation” the song is about a man who has left God but is back and wanting a revelation from heaven that will say what he should do, despite that God has already told him what men should do in his book called the, um Bible. Missed that one Mac. The lyrics painfully fallow suit with songs like “other side” and “let me love you” where their best weapons are sounding emotional and meaningful.

Making the front Billboard is hard enough to do without being a band that has played in front of Christian audience for years. But Third Day made it, and along with some mainstream airplay there are other reasons to begin to doubt Third Day’s authenticity as a firm Christian band. Like the reason that three of the four bands they invited for the recording of Revelation (Daughtry, Hoobastank, P.O.D. and Flyleaf) are made up of Christians who mainly run the mainstream side of the fence when it comes to their music. Also, when discussing the new album (‘Our goal for the album is for these songs to hold out hope for people. Our desire is that people do relate to a lot of struggles that are in some of these songs, but at the same time on this album find strength and find hope and encouragement.’) Third Day guitarist Mark Lee fails to mentions God or eternal things. Mix in the fact that none of the lyrics on Revelation mention God by name and you might have a case and say Third Day has let their lyrics suffer for the new attention. However past albums and quotes make it doubtful that is the case and the ‘you’ in the songs cannot really be taken to mean someone other than God.

Back to the question that started off the review: of course not! Despite some idle speculation of this writer every indication says that we will be “enjoying” Third Days music for years to come. The vocals are more aggressive and the melodies have gotten harder, some of it is simple and generic but most of it is fresh southern rock music that fans have been enjoying for years. The lyrics are the same, the music isn’t much different, and the signs that Third Day might be leaning toward the mainstream side of things is a little premature… but not impossible.

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