"Brotherhood" - True Liberty
Genre: Punk Rock
Year: 2008
Label: Raging Storm Records
Website: http://www.truelibertyrva.com/

Review Rating: 8.5 / 10
Average User Rating: N/A / 10

Just over 3 years ago the original members of True Liberty quit their secular bands (who had, incidentally, opened for The Ramones, Less Than Jake, The Casualties and The Business among others) in order to rededicate their lives to God. The rededication involved forming True Liberty in order to 'play punk rock music that brings praise and glory to God'. Well, enough of their history, what's the new CD like?

Exactly one year on from the release of their debut full length, 'This Is War' (which I never actually got around to reviewing!), 'Brotherhood' sees True Liberty excelling in their blend of old-school punk rock, rock & roll and sing-along tunes. Aggressive enough for it not to be cheesy, the lyrics are blatantly Christian through-and-through (“Yes we believe in Jesus / He's the one that freed us”) and, if not referring directly to their Saviour, the songs at the very least always have a positive message.

Musically they share some similarity with bands like Bad Religion (their older stuff) as well as adopting some of the quirkiness of Guttermouth in 'Hooah Lord'. For a three-piece band they make a lot of noise with obvious care being put into the recording and just the right amount of lead-guitar parts (ie they've not layered on 12 guitar parts so when they play live it will sound true to the record [unlike Blink 182...!]).

Lyrically 'Take Me Home' could easily be arranged as a methodist hymn yet works brilliantly with the storming guitars and punchy drums; and 'Hooah Lord' is a fun song of praise and worship akin to Matt Redman's 'Undignified'.

I think the stand out tracks for me are 'Let's Go', 'Hooah Lord' and 'Chosen' – the acoustic closing track, 'Prodigal Son', is worthy of a mention too.

All in all this is a great, Christian punk album; the songs are fast and catchy (just over two minutes being the average) and the lyrics send a very clear message. My only criticism, and really it is very minor, is the cymbals don't seem to have much 'high-end' in the recording – it doesn't detract from the record in anyway but personally I think cymbals add a lot to a recording!

Playing with the likes of The Business, Flatfoot 56 and Murphy's Law, True Liberty must be doing something right and, with a blatantly Christian outlook and witness, that can only be a good thing!

by MaFt - 2009-01-06

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