Finally Awake (CD)

Seventh Day Slumber has ever-so-slightly fine-tuned its sound with producer Paul Ebersold (Third Day, The Showdown). They’ve found a way to showcase the band’s greatest strength—the melodic rasp vocals of Joseph Rojas—and the result has never sounded better. Instead of strumming along at a slow pace, they’ve served up a clean polish that will serve the story-telling songs well, making each verse as important as the chorus. Most of the songs are cohesive to this sound, making for a pleasant listen from beginning to end. If you took 11 power ballads from the band Pillar, this is what it might sound like.

The second track, “Last Regret,” makes a decided departure from this format, as the band seemingly sticks its toe in the screamo waters to see how it feels. It works well enough that it may not be a surprise if we hear more from this direction in the future. The upbeat song carries quite the joyous, celebratory message: “I never dreamed that I could feel this way… I finally found a place where I belong/Only one regret—all those years I’ve lost for nothing at all.”

Other tunes translate the yearning a believer carries as a burden for those lost around them. It’s preaching, but it hardly seems contrived when Rojas sings: “There is One Who sees it all/He’ll give you life you never dreamed/He can see the pain underneath your skin…” (“Missing Pages”). When the music is this solid, it helps bring the message home.

DOUG VAN PELT

Review Provided by CCMmagazine.com