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East West :: "The Light in Guinevere's Garden"

© Jon Hodges

I had never heard of East West until I walked into The Salt Shaker, a local Christian establishment with the best music selection in the area, and saw East West displayed in one of their listening stations. Before tuning in, I flipped the case and saw they were on Epic Records, not Tooth & Nail, Rescue, Solid State, Screaming Giant, or and of the other well known labels in the Christian metal scene. But Epic, a major secular level.

Listening to the album, I’m a bit surprised they’re signed to Epic, they don’t seem the kind of act you advertise, for their sound often changes throughout the LP, but that doesn’t detract from their outright skill and intelligence as a band.

The album starts with all the energy of “Wake,” which first lends the inkling of Static-X but then smartens up and rocks out entirely, in particular around 1:56 when it empties out into a blood-stained basin of wind swept vocals and slow but heavy guitars.

The album doesn’t lend itself well to description, doesn’t fit a mold at all. The second track, “Song-X,” starts off with a guitar that sounds more like something out of a John Wayne movie, but builds from it heaviness with chunky bass and a smidgen of keyboards for good measure. The fourth track, “Closure,” is one of the strongest on the album with its harked chorus difficult to deny sing-a-long. The sixth song, too, provokes a good rhythm, great lyrics, and even some quick classical guitar after the first chorus.

But it’s with the eighth track the other side of East West begins to show, and rather suddenly. Some will probably be disappointed in the latter part of the album, but I find great solace in the soft guitars of “She Cries,” which sounds to me like the hit single The Police never quite wrote. The following track is also softer than the first seven on the album and instead plays with a more poppy, radio-able song with a Foo Fighters-like chorus.

After the tenth track returns to their metal influences, the final eleventh song, “Let You Go,” returns to the more poppy feeling of “Superstar” and is also probably fit for radios and screaming teenage girls.

East West combines a plethora of influences to create a well-rounded, enjoyable album. There are a couple weaker tracks, but they’re more than made up for by songs such as “Wake,” “Closure,” “Pictures,” and “She Cries.” Fans of Christian acts such as Stavesacre and Grammatrain will probably find enjoyment here, as will fans of heavier groups like Leaderdogs for the Blind or P.O.D. East West has much to offer to both parties.

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