Scars Remain — Disciple

Disciple's Scars Remain came out on INO / SRE Recordings on 7 November 2006. It was eleven tracks running about thirty-nine minutes (38:54), cut with Travis Wyrick at Lakeside Studios in Knoxville, Tennessee. Kevin Young sang, Brad Noah played guitars, Joey Fife played bass and Tim Barrett played drums. The record sits on the metal shelf here — Christian hard rock and alternative metal from the mid-2000s Knoxville lane, the same broad shelf as Pillar's harder Flicker-era work.

It peaked at No. 118 on the Billboard 200, No. 9 on Christian Albums and No. 1 on Heatseekers. After the World became the band's first Christian Hit Radio No. 1 and finished 2007 as the eighth most-played CHR song. Love Hate (On and On) went to No. 1 on Christian rock radio. Game On was the theme for WWE Cyber Sunday in 2006. In 2008 the album won the Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year at the 39th GMA Dove Awards, and After the World was nominated for Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song. It scores an 8/10.

What you're hearing

Regime Change opens the record radio-ready and mean — the kind of first track built to clear a room and keep the chorus. Love Hate (On and On) is the rock-radio hit, the one that went to No. 1 on Christian rock and still sounds like a single first. My Hell turns inward without losing the weight; AllMusic's Greg Prato flagged it as the introspective turn. The title track Scars Remain is the spine of the middle stretch. Game On rides a Linkin Park-shaped groove — Prato said as much — and later became the Cyber Sunday theme, which is how a Knoxville hard-rock cut ended up on a WWE pay-per-view. Someone keeps the drive before the ballad arrives.

After the World is the power ballad that crossed onto CHR. Prato called it schmaltzy. Jesus Freak Hideout's John DiBiase (5 November 2006) heard a Chad Kroeger-like vocal and still ranked the album among the strongest hard-rock records of that fall. Dive and Fight for Love fill the back half without dropping the pulse. Purpose to Melody sets up the closer. No End at All ends on a ballad that DiBiase found anticlimactic — a soft landing after a record that spent most of its runtime swinging.

Prato heard formulaic early-2000s hard rock: professional, radio-ready in places, not especially memorable. DiBiase heard ferocious rock that matched the band's prior catchiness with their vicious roots, and called out Regime Change, Love Hate, My Hell, the title track, Game On and Someone as the strong stretch. Dead To Self and Girder notes later underlined the Dove Rock Album win, the CHR run for After the World and the rock No. 1 for Love Hate. Those three lanes — chart, radio, award — are how the record still argues for itself.

How it was made

The Knoxville four-piece cut the album with Travis Wyrick at Lakeside Studios. INO / SRE put it out in November 2006. Singles rolled through Christian rock and CHR into 2007: Love Hate (On and On) on the rock chart, After the World on hit radio. Game On left the record and went into WWE television that same autumn, which is a strange and perfect mid-2000s placement for a hard-rock chorus built like a fight song. The Dove for Rock Album of the Year landed in 2008, two years after street date — a long aftershock for an eleven-track hard-rock record that never pretended to invent a new lane. The band stayed a four-piece on the credits: Young, Noah, Fife, Barrett. No guest-star clutter. Just the Lakeside sessions and the radio work afterward.

Where the score lands

It gets an eight because the hits and the hardware still hold. A Billboard 200 foothold, a Heatseekers No. 1, a Christian Albums top ten, a CHR No. 1, a Christian rock No. 1, a WWE theme placement, two official videos and a Dove for Rock Album are not small numbers for a Knoxville INO hard-rock record in 2006. DiBiase was broadly on side even when he flagged the ballad weak spots. Prato's formula charge is fair — you can hear the early-2000s template in Game On and the radio polish in Regime Change. So why not a nine? The era-template sound and the soft landing of After the World and No End at All keep it from the top shelf. But it's not a seven either. The radio run, the Dove and those two official videos earn the eight.

Watch

After the World leads with the official music video. Behind it are official videos for Scars Remain, then pseudo videos for Game On and Regime Change.

Where this album sits on Loud Faith

Christian hard rock out of Knoxville in 2006 was a real radio fight, not a side project. Scars Remain put Disciple on the Billboard 200, won a Dove for Rock Album, owned a CHR No. 1 and a rock No. 1, and sent Game On into a WWE pay-per-view. It belongs on the metal shelf here next to the other mid-2000s hard-rock cuts. After the World leads the videos, with Scars Remain, Game On and Regime Change right behind it.