Hard Rock: The Chemistry's The Chemistry

“Still Alive” by the Chemistry combines all of this band’s influences into one track. An opening bluesy riffs immediately leads into an Emo Hard Rock wall akin to Number One Gun, Number One Fan, Day of Fire, or Finger Eleven. Danny Mitchell’s vocals jam out with skate punk attitude (Blink 182, Relient K) while giving hints of the rap-sing posturing of Kutless. Hipped-up rhythms from Justin Schultz (drums) and Jared Valencia (bass) make this hard-edged sound more than a headbanging drudgery. A gang shout on the chorus comes equipped with the triple guitar attack from Thomas Scriven (lead), Tommy Hamilton, and Mitchell, accents and rising sounds coming from every direction. Collective Soul’s triple guitar line-up doesn’t have anything on the Chemistry’s guitar slingers. The energy and creativity of “Still Alive” is what captured my attention, bringing the Chemistry above the glut of Christian rock hitting the desk.

The hard rock wash of “The Same” comes with the bonus of guitar/drum fill breaks, some 80’s throwback, quieter rock bridges, and hip-hop in Mitchell’s word-work. Danceable drumming and guitar stutters kick off “At a Glance” which has this emo chorus coupled with that skate punk attitude in the verses. “From Within” blazes with that hard rock edge, background vocals that hoarsely shout, but with plenty of melody and amped-up energy like Sarcasm.

“Still Alive” declares, “If you want me to flail, I’ll bring this place down/If you want me to be like everyone else/Then cuff my hands and paint my face. . .When did art discover a constant?/When did music become a machine?” The Chemistry is avoiding that machine. Oh, tracks like “Fear of Falling” come close to fulfilling the expectations of contemporary Christian radio—a little extra guitar crunch with a praise song chorus—but given the right support from producers and label, the Chemistry will be able to avoid the stagnation of Christian rock.

Lyrically, the Chemistry allow for plenty of wiggle room on interpretation, meaning that if you want to use the songs for Bible studies, your students will have to work their brains to see the connection to the faith. And that’s a good thing. Many of the songs could simply be love songs, but the words could also transform into words between God and us. The aching wait for a girlfriend to arrive in “About You” has the line, “I wish our distance would disappear,” which is a powerful Advent prayer. While we often use hyperbole to talk about our passion for girlfriends or boyfriends, our deepest desire and need is to be brought back together with God.

Of course, like Switchfoot, P.O.D., and other bands in the mainstream who have personal relationships with Christ, there’s a lot of questions about the Chemistry’s faith, because they’re on a secular label without clear Jesus lyrics. In response to this, Valencia posted this on the Chemistry messageboard:

Everyone in our band has a personal relationship with God, who has blessed us enough to be able to be musicians as a living. However we are only a ministry oriented band in the fact that we wish to give kids hope, and light through are music. We are very much in the secular industry, in fact that is where we started. We wish to be lights in a dark room, not in already well lit rooms. There are so many bands out there saying things through their music that either have no substance, or are full of anger and hurt with no conclusions to what they are trying to say. We are trying to say things through are music that are uplifting, and correct according to our beliefs. This is more of my opinion. Everyone in the band differs a bit (not much) on this subject. (link to original posting)

Thanks to the Chemistry and Razor and Tie for the review copy.