The Light in Guinivere's Garden

ALBUM REVIEW
The Light in Guinivere's Garden, EastWest

I think I may have heard the mention of a band named EastWest, but had never heard any of their music...when on my LaunchCast player came one of their songs. I came to love that song after having heard it on several other occasions. It was more of a ballad, and I found out E/W was a metal band...which is not my style. I turned the issue of whether or not to buy an album for one song over and over again...until I purchased it on a whim one evening. Tearing open the package and holding my breath, thinking I would give the album at least one good listen before I abandoned all of the songs except for the *one* I liked.

Almost immediately, my attitude changed. I've listened through 3 times and still loving it.

The first thing that strikes you about The Light in Guinivere's Garden is the name...long, poetic, and catchy. I've tried to search for information linking the Guinivere of Arthurian legend with some sort of light in some sort of garden...but to no avail. The meaning of the album is still a mystery to me...perhaps I'm grasping at straws and Guinivere is a friend of the band who's been through a rought time or something. After all, bands often do incorporate highly personal themes and stories into their music.

The next thing that struck me even more...upon seeing the album cover...is the fierce, stone lion with blazing eyes. There's something captivating about it...several people have told me it reminds them of C.S. Lewis' Aslan from his Chronicles of Narnia. Classy artwork.

In any case, to describe EastWest's offering here is difficult. It's definitely hard rock with a definite leaning toward metal...but there are so many diverse moments it's hard to pigeonhole it absolutely genre-wise. It's an album of extremes. Understatement and overstatement. Screaming and whispering. Thrashing guitars and touches of acoustic guitar, piano, strings. Rockers and ballads. One thing's for sure: if you're looking for some feel-good bright up-tempo Christian rock this is not for you. These are the frustrations and triumphs, hopes and fears, anguish and salvation of this generation. There are only a couple of songs that break from the musings on darkness and struggling to be in the Light.

There are two ways to view Guinivere's Garden.
1. It is just great head-banging material, music to shake things up.
2. The lyrics and music work together to present an honest, forthright in-your-face look at the evils and toils faced by people, especially millenials, in the modern world....and an attempt to provide a Solution.

I personally think both views are correct.

WAKE What a way to kick it off. A low rumbling, like a wind, blows for about 30 seconds, joined by a ticking clock, until the guitars kick in and the vocalist whispers the verse. The starting and stopping guitars in their intensity contrast starkly with the whispering, until the guitars gain momentum with some electronica noises and the screamed chorus. The song is obviously about being awakened by new life. It's a song of contrasts, starts and stops. The most interesting moments are when in the chorus he stops yelling "all I want from You"...to whisper, "is to see Your face"...and then yell again...

SONG-X Perhaps the catchiest song. Slow tempo, with awesome drum intro and bass riff. The verses are semi-whispered rap until the guitars kick in on the chorus. Song X is a song about generation "x." Young people are being murdered, etc. There is something rotten in the state of Denmark. "Your mind is blind and your eyes can't see!!!" End of song=the return of the jam session.

NEPHESH This is my favorite heavy song. The guitars are greatly spacedThe tempo is perfect...the vocals are tremendous. The verse vocals are soft and pretty...with Mike Tubbs screaming himself into nonexistence in the chorus. In the verse, the the lyrics are a bit difficult to understand...but it's obviously a Christian trying to be free of some sin or other form of oppression and failing. The chorus is satan screaming insults at the believer: "You're only gonna be what you see/You're never gonna jump up/You're only gonna be what you see/You're never gonna become just like Him!" Again, it sounds dark and like something you wouldn't want to listen to...that's what I thought...but it's something that can only be experienced...as is the whole CD. Listening to the songs can sometimes be a relief...like a facing of reality and dealing with it. Nephesh ends with a 20-second spot of soft guitar...for reflection. That's what I love about the album. Everything is properly placed so you can get the import of the message.

CLOSURE We finally get a song complete with actual singing. Lyrics a bit tricky, but about not accomplishing what we try to accomplish and basically "turning upward...falling to our knees" because what what we see of ourselves is "only half of who you are," etc.

DISTURBED My least favorite. The weird noises are neat...and accompany the song's quiet feel pretty well...until the chorus screams in. With the chorus being "You, You're the reason, You're the one that's stealing my freedom!" it seems this a Christian mad at God...and the cure in the bridge is "refresh me, renew me..." Whether the speaker is a Christian or not...he/she obviously is being lied to by satan and has a flawed view of God...and is therefore disturbed.

PICTURES This is a very likable song. The opening melodic guitar makes an immediate change in pace for the album. We even get a brief acoustic tasty bit after the first chorus. The song is just a great change of pace with some new sonic offerings and hooks. It's about seeing a flawed view of reality. The singer is singing to someone else who would rather walk in darkness than light. "You see only what you want to, close your eyes and sleep. Your hear only what you want to, clinging to your lies."

DED If there's a "screamer song" on the album, this is it. When I first heard a clip I figured I'd dislike it. However, it stands alongside "Nephesh" as my other good heavy song on here. The song is apparently about the utter moral decadence of our world...and the singer is screaming (apparently) at sinners, "How's this, is this what you wanted?"
"Open up your eyes/and face what is to come/These lies they're gaining ground/and we're just buying time/We stand our backs are braced/Our feet are firmly planted/Come quickly God we cry/Come quickly oh come quickly! It is so neat to hear mid-song the yelling stop, a soft guitar plod as the Christian softly sings, "I see Your face, Your hand so close, Your voice so clear." The beginning of the song is also interesting, as it's a recording of a naturalist, who's hunting the brown recluse spider...and he talks about the kind of habitat that sustains them...just as the song roars in to talk about the sinful habitat surrounding us.

SHE CRIES This is the song that got me to the buy the album. It's frankly the best ballad I've heard...ever. Period. The softest song of the album, it's creatively placed after the most raucous, the screamer, "Ded." The first time I heard the song, I got slightly (I admit) choked up...which never happened as a result of music before. Frankly, if you haven't heard the song...whatever your musical background and likes...you need to. The soft ballad almost seems out of place on such an album. But it goes to show that E/W is the real deal musically. The song is about a girl who has been beaten down by her past/a cruel world...and the song is God singing over the girl, telling her to release her fears and confide in Him. I can't even describe the song musically...it's just beautiful. The verse music is based on a soft repeated guitar riff that has got to be some of the prettiest guitar I've heard...with a another background guitar...eventually joined by cymbals. There are bits where you can hear strings, wind noises, and other effects...but the verses are based on this repetitive, simple, emotional guitar riff. The end of the verses always bring in a chorus with added volume...but maintained beauty, mainly kept through the vocals. Here let me say a word about Mike Tubbs' vocals in this song and on the album as a whole. In my opinion, Tubbs' voice isn't the best out there. Yet it's perfect for this album. His screams and whispers are great...but his singing is wonderful, too, especially on the song. His vocals are "unpolished", so to speak. They are soft...and because they are left raw and unpolished...as he sings the verse culminating in his fragile declaration, "and now...she cries"...the result is a tenderness that melts the heart. Following the second chorus is a gem of a guitar solo. The song ends as quietly as it began. I just can't say enough about this song. It's ironic to me that a metal band would produce one of the prettiest songs ever. It's a true gem, though...and has been recognized as such in both the Christian and secular world for its sheer beauty. "Won't you come away with me tonight/We can fly past the moon and the starlight/It doens't matter where you've been before all night like this/It doesn't matter where you've been before/I'll love you like this/And she cries. ... She cries, yeah./Can't you see/I won't leave/But you have to open your eyes/Here I stand/Take my hand/Let go of the fear that you hold/Don't throw your pearls to the swine tonight/Don't let them take your innocence/Remember the times I held your hand and kept you close/Remember the times I held you up and now.../She cries...she cries, yeah."

SUPERSTAR This is yet another chance for E/W to display its diversity. Here we get something more along the lines of U2. The message of the song is basically identity in Christ. "No matter what they do, never let them take what you have/What they say, never gonna change who you are." Nice melodic, smooth, guitars. There's even a section in the middle with techno beats where E/W explores dance music, followed by some tasteful piano bits.

BREATHE I guess this is E/W's final chance on the album to show you "we gave you a couple softies, but we still rock." The verses are rapcore with more overt lyrics about faith and the chorus is a simple screamed "Breathe on me!" with some of the album's catchiest guitars. I'd say the song is 2nd in catchiness only to "Song-X."

LET YOU GO I said my two favorite heavy songs on the album were "Nephesh" and "Ded." My two other favorites are ballads. There's "She Cries"...and there's "Let You Go." "Let You Go" is in ways even more emotionally riveting than "She Cries." It seems like the singer has lost his wife...whatever the case, there's been a death and he's letting her remembrance of her slip away...since she's in heaven. This song probably has a personal story behind it. The guitars are beautiful like She Cries but with more bite to them. The strings section toward the end is very tasteful. "Got to let you go...just like we said before." When Tubbs keeps singing that...it could almost make you want to cry...because it's equally pretty and melancholy the way he keeps singing it. It's so melodic when he says "got to let you go"...and then there's a tinge of pain in "...just like we said before," almost like he's about to cry. The album closes with strings and then what sounds like a xylophone.

I didn't mean for the review to be this long.

I don't know about you, but I go through phases with music. I'm sure that my fascination with this album is a mere trend. However, what's impressive is the way the album blew my expectations out of the water...hopefully I will never again pigeonhole an album...or anythinig for that matter. This isn't the kind of album you'll want to casually listen to...and you probably won't listen to it very often. But The Light in Guinivere's Garden is the type of album that, once you're in the frame of mind, can be a real catharsis and painfully relieving view of the darkness we encounter in our fallen state on this planet...and it's from the perspective of guys who in the credits write things like, "All praise and glory to my strength, my peace, and my refuge, Jesus Christ."

EastWest drummer Bob Vergura says, "East West comes from the verse Psalm 103:12 "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." That was an attractive promise we wanted to share."