Hard Rock: Kainos' Alive

Evanescence is equivocal about being Christian, the spirituality and biblical tinges in their music denied by their strong statements against being labeled a “Christian band.” However, Evanescence is unequivocal in their pursuit of melodic hard rock with touches of hip hop/rap posturing.

Flip that equivocal and unequivocal around, and that’s how you can describe the young band, Kainos. Kainos is unequivocal about being Christian, taking on a Greek word as their name to signify being made new in Christ. However, Kainos is equivocal in their sound; are they creating their own identity or simply mimicking the melodic hard rock of Evanescence?

This sound-alike quality is more than a surface level comparison of a hard rock band with a female lead singer. The title track of Kainos’ debut album, Alive, starts with electronic strings, a muffled drum track, and Hannah Stacy’s haunting vocals, all of which then breaks into the crash chords of the chorus. As the song grows, I’ve had an equivocal experience, not knowing if I had put Kainos in the CD or if I was listening to Evanescence’s Fallen.

Of course, this is all from the point of view of reviewing a new artist, trying to decide just how new they are. Do the husband and wife team of Ben and Hannah Stacy have something unique to offer? The danger will for them to remain equivocal on this question. There are glimmers of hope throughout Alive. The album opens with “Selfish Me” and “When You Come Back Down,” both of which charge ahead like hard rockers with open hearted emotions, battling cries that also show chinks in the armor. The hip-shake guitar joins a little air punching on “Layin’ It Down.”

Lyrically, I’d point again to “Selfish Me,” an angry confession that doesn’t just admit pride but shuts it down. There’s power in many of these hard rock psalms written by the Stacys. However, either for the sake of being less direct or due to the models in contemporary praise songs, Kainos’ lyrics suffer from overuse of the pronoun “you.” Nearly all of the songs are addressed to “you,” or perhaps a capitalized “y” “You.” This lack of variety lets these songs pass like highway mile markers—each one has a different number, but they’re all green, the same size, and pretty much like the one that just passed. More specificity would lend more dimension to these songs, stories, and words of Scripture. While the album closes with the blues-flavored “Like Gravity,” a song more about God than addressed to God, more songs that step out of the direct address to God would provide another dimension.

Perhaps, then, while Kainos has an equivocal sound, coming close at times to sounding like an Evanescence cover band, perhaps this review has been a bit equivocal as well. Let me clear this up with this thought: I’ve offered up some concerns about Kainos because hearing them makes me want them to succeed. As I write this review at the coffee shop, listening to “Fade,” there’s a real possibility that I’ll go from tapping my foot to pogoing. I like the coffee shop, so I’m keeping the earphones in, the speakers off, and staying in my seat, but if Kainos didn’t have some sonic nitro, I wouldn’t even be in this danger. In that respect, I’m unequivocal. You will shake your hips and pound a fist as you shout out to the Lord while listening to Kainos.

Thanks to Kainos and Southern Signal Records for the review copy.