The Violet Burning
drop-dead
northern records

rating: 5 out of 5

We’re all drowning…in sin, in despair, in stress, in doubt. The Violet Burning’s Michael Pritzl has always acknowledged this through honest songwriting, and with his latest release, drop-dead, he offers a lush, lifesaving album to rescue weary souls in search of Spiritual dry land.

The disc begins in a semi-sonic underwater setting. Waves of distorted guitar and whitecaps of deep-toned, tribal drums undulate at the start of the disc’s opener, “Humm.”  “Turn out all the lights and let’s begin / Switch on all the dark and let the music spin…” Pritzl pleads before diving into the deep to throw resuscitative arms around the listless listener. He grasps on tight and smoothly guides plugged ears and hushed hearts upward toward the surface where more healing words and melodies await.

drop-dead is a return to roots of sorts for The Violet Burning. After the “kinder, gentler,” white-themed Northern Records release This is the Moment (2003)—with its near radio-friendly hooks and brighter production—Pritzl has again embraced the delicious darkness that has made The Violet Burning longtime indie rock heroes of alternative Christian rock. Within those shadows of human nature, Pritzl reaches heavenward to seek and find solace in the One who knows the challenges of earthly existence: Jesus, the central saving figure most often referred to in the psalm-like lyrics Pritzl pens: “Yeah, you’re my heart, you’re my home” (“One Thousand Years”); “Will you carry me? You’re all I want” (“All I Want”); “All my life, I’m looking for light I cannot find within me / Hold me now, I think I’m breaking” (“Humm”).

The glorious, “my-speakers-can’t-handle-this-intensity” glam of “Do You Love Me,” the mesmerizing key-drone and swelling build of “More,” and the underground New Wave pulse of “Rewind” prove that The Violet Burning’s best work is decidedly ahead, not behind. Pritzl’s choice of studio musicians who share his vision for authentic art and audio transcendence (VB live drummer Jason lord Mize, The Listening’s keysman Josiah Sherman, and tracking gurus The Glitter Twins [a.k.a. Gabriel Wilson and Chris Greely of The Listening]) propels drop-dead into the stratosphere, orbiting in the company of previous brilliant VB efforts, including Strength and The Violet Burning.

Surrender to this album; surrender to the Spirit that inspired it.

Recommended if you like The Cure, T. Rex, U2, The Listening, Cush.

Greg Adams, 5/24/06

rating: 5 out of 5