Messengers — August Burns Red

August Burns Red's Messengers came out on Solid State Records on 19 June 2007. It's eleven tracks and runs forty-eight minutes eleven seconds. The band recorded it from 29 January to 3 March 2007 at Rebel Waltz Studio and Sound Kitchen in Franklin, Tennessee. Tue Madsen produced it with the band and mixed it, and Troy Glessner mastered it. Jake Luhrs sang lead, and this was the first ABR album with him out front. JB Brubaker played lead guitar and Brent Rambler played rhythm. Dustin Davidson played bass and sang backing vocals on his first album as the full-time bassist. Matt Greiner played drums and piano. Jon Dunn handled A&R. Invisible Creature did the art direction, Ryan Clark designed it, Jerad Knudson shot the cover and Dave Hill took the band photo.

It sold around nine thousand copies in its first week, and later counts put it past eighty thousand. Here's the running order. The Truth of a Liar, Up Against the Ropes, Back Burner, The Blinding Light, Composure, Vital Signs, The Eleventh Hour, The Balance, Black Sheep, An American Dream and Redemption. Later vinyl pressings tacked on Mosely as a bonus. It's the second album from the Lancaster, Pennsylvania band on Solid State, and the first with both Luhrs and Davidson in the lineup.

Who they were in 2007

In 2007 they were a Christian metalcore band from Pennsylvania on Solid State, and they said so openly. This was their first full record with Luhrs and Davidson. The faith's right there in the lyrics, but it isn't dressed up for Sunday school.

What the critics keep saying about this album

AllMusic's Stewart Mason laid out how the record sounds. He heard vocals in the modern death-metal style and fast riffs played in unison. He noted that the intro to The Truth of a Liar has been compared to Tony Iommi's guitar playing. He also caught a touch of seventies heavy metal in there, like a less snarky Eagles of Death Metal or Kyuss-style stoner metal "without the bongwater buzz." That's still the review people reach for when they talk about how much straight metal is hiding inside this metalcore record.

AbsolutePunk gave it 8.5, a high mark that sits comfortably next to the AllMusic and Jesus Freak Hideout reviews.

Tim Harro reviewed it for Jesus Freak Hideout on 21 November 2007. He said their Solid State debut, Thrill Seeker, had raised the bar, and that Messengers sweetly satisfies and somehow tops it. He praised the absolutely phenomenal playing from every member and the tight, technical breakdowns. He heard passionate yelling and screaming through a relentlessly heavy, fast set of songs, a lot of them running past four minutes. He found the lyrics as heavy as the music. Back Burner is about the emptiness of worldly things, Composure is about pulling yourself together, The Eleventh Hour urges you to accept the Truth, and Redemption closes things out as an honest prayer of praise that asks for grace and wants to serve. Harro had his doubts too. He said the sound stays mostly the same across the album and is nearly identical to Thrill Seeker, so after a while it can lose impact, get repetitive, maybe even turn insipid. He wanted more variety, and he thought the album art was pretty lame next to the Thrill Seeker booklet. Even so, he closed by calling it a huge second album that makes ABR a modern metal archetype with staying power.

Dave Synyard at Exclaim, in a review published on 18 July 2007, heard a band full of drive without a single lapse. He put this hardcore-based, metal-inspired follow-up right up there with Solid State labelmates Norma Jean and Zao. He heard The Truth of a Liar as blisteringly fast technical drumming broken up by back-breaking breakdowns, and Greiner as the eye of the storm on Composure. He said Back Burner shows off the band's metal roots the most, with angular riffs, squeals and muted chugs.

Erik T at Teeth of the Divine reviewed it on 9 July 2007. He heard top-notch metalcore with a Gothenburg flavour, in the same lane as Darkest Hour's work at the time. He said the band had moved from jarring, angular metal to something smoother and tightly melodic, and that Luhrs was a much more forceful presence, even if the lyrics were still Christian. He praised eleven strong tracks packed with memorable riffs, solos and loping grooves. He called The Truth of a Liar and Redemption brilliant bookends, and he singled out Back Burner, the dramatic Blinding Light, Vital Signs, Composure and the riff-heavy Black Sheep. He loved Tue Madsen's production and signed off with "Great stuff. Chalk another one up for God."

Four tracks from this LP

Composure was the official video, and it came out as a single on 6 September 2007. It leads off the videos. Synyard heard Greiner as the eye of the storm on it, and Harro took it as a song about pulling yourself together.

Back Burner got an official video from Solid State Records, which premiered on Myspace on 13 August 2008. Synyard called it the song with the deepest metal roots, and Harro heard it as a song about the emptiness of worldly things. It's the punch in the middle of the record.

The Truth of a Liar has the intro Mason compared to Iommi. Synyard used it to show what the band could do, and Erik T called it one of two brilliant bookends. It's where the album starts, and where you first hear what Madsen got out of them in Franklin.

Redemption is what Harro called an honest prayer to close the album, and it's the other bookend Erik T loved. It runs past six minutes, a long, faith-filled landing after the sprint.

After those four, go looking for The Blinding Light, Up Against the Ropes, Black Sheep, The Eleventh Hour and Vital Signs. Harro's point that it's formulaic and repetitive still stands. So do AbsolutePunk's 8.5 and Mason's take on the death-metal vocals and that seventies metal colour.

What the room sounded like in 2007

Madsen's sessions at Rebel Waltz and Sound Kitchen in Franklin put the Lancaster band on a Solid State album with Luhrs and Davidson in the lineup for the first time, and he didn't sand them down into soft Christian pop. The official videos for Composure and Back Burner are still worth your time. The sales run from about 9,000 in the first week to more than 80,000 later on. It isn't an arena legend. It's the album that made August Burns Red, and critics still can't agree on whether it's a near-perfect template or the same idea played over and over.

The score

It gets an 8/10 from me.

So why not higher? Harro already said it all sounds much the same and the artwork was weak, and AbsolutePunk's 8.5 is a high mark but not a perfect one. On the other side, there's a lot keeping it above a seven. AbsolutePunk's score, Mason's praise for the death-metal vocals, the Iommi-style intro and the seventies metal colour, Synyard putting them next to Norma Jean and Zao, Erik T's love for the bookends, the videos for Composure and Back Burner, and that Redemption finale all still stand up nearly twenty years on. It's the album that made them, with Luhrs and Davidson locked in, even if it's not perfect.

Where this album sits on Loud Faith

Christian metalcore on Solid State in 2007 was a proper scene with real reach. It meant studios in Franklin, video premieres on Myspace, the Tooth & Nail family of labels, and kids who wanted breakdowns and belief on the same CD. Messengers is August Burns Red's second album. Mason heard the metal weight, Harro called it near perfect but formulaic, AbsolutePunk gave it 8.5, Synyard heard Greiner as the eye of the storm and Erik T loved the bookends. Composure is the song to put on first.