ALBUM REVIEW: "True View" by Stick To Your Guns

Stick To Your Guns have been dealing in frenetic, anthemic hardcore punk for almost 15 years now, and their sixth studio album True View follows the same well-tread path that they (and so many other similar bands) know so well. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; they certainly know how to put together a banger or two, but it really depends on where you sit on the fence with hardcore punk. For me there was just enough of interest to keep my attention for the whole album and keep me relatively entertained, but on second and third listens there really isn't much there for me and I suspect that this will be the case for most. I mean, you can only hear the same build up and breakdown formula so many times before it becomes exhausting. The strongest element of True View is the lyricism, which has always been the biggest stake I've held in Stick To Your Guns' music, but even in this corner the band has lost some of the vitality and impact they once had. I don't know if it's because I wasn't already upset and looking for affirmation going into this album, but I often found myself wondering exactly what I was meant to be emotional or triumphant about. And with 13 tracks all aiming to be super emotional and uplifting it all becomes too much by about two thirds of the way through. In conjunction with the traditionally flat dynamic contrast of hardcore punk, True View became very hard for me to enjoy as a whole after the first spin. There are more than enough tunes to get the mosh pit moving, though, and they've already proven that they can't go wrong it that department. So that's something.

Favourite Songs: Cave Canem and Doomed by You

Least Favourite Songs: Married to the Noise and 56

Rating: C-

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A Response To 'Christian' Views On Secular Music

Is there such thing as music that Christians shouldn’t listen to? Should we be dismissive of music with either explicit language or sexual, violent or substance oriented themes? Should anyone even be telling anyone else what they can and can’t listen to? These are questions that are thrown around a lot in Christian circles, and given what I do here on this blog and how that overlaps with my job working for the church, I thought I would share my thoughts on this topic. I’ll say this at the outset so that we’re on the same page – I think any attempt to dictate what people should and shouldn’t listen to is stupid and disrespectful on a fundamental level. I’ll go into detail about why I think that later on, but for now here are some thoughts I have on some of the “Christian” opinions I come across pretty regularly. The first and most ludicrous thing that seems to follow me around is the idea that because I listen to underground genres, particularly on the heavy metal

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