Fireproof — Pillar

Pillar's Fireproof came out on Flicker Records on 21 May 2002. It was their second studio album, eleven tracks running about thirty-nine minutes (38:43). Rob Beckley sang and played rhythm guitar, Noah Henson played lead guitar — his first album with the band — Kalel played bass and Brad Noone played drums. KJ-52 turns up as a guest on Stay Up. Four singles came off it: Fireproof, Indivisible, A Shame and Echelon. Flicker put the original out in 2002, and MCA / Geffen brought a remixed reissue the next year with a radio mix of the title track and Further retitled Further from Myself.

It peaked at No. 139 on the Billboard 200 and No. 9 on Billboard's Christian Albums chart. The band has said it sold more than 300,000 copies, which makes it their biggest seller. The title track hit No. 39 on Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay and spent eleven weeks at No. 1 on Christian rock radio, tying P.O.D.'s Alive for the longest run of its kind at the time. Echelon and A Shame also topped or climbed high on the Christian rock chart. In 2003 the album won the Dove Award for Hard Music Album. It's Christian hard rock with a clear nu-metal and rap-rock lean, and it sits on the metal shelf here. It scores an 8/10.

What you're hearing

Fireproof opens the record and never really lets go of that Daniel 3 spine — stand firm, don't bow. It's the song that crossed onto mainstream rock radio, and it's the first album track in the Watch list. Just to Get By kicks the aggression up. Echelon rides a Linkin Park-shaped groove without losing Pillar's own hook, and it later went to No. 1 on Christian rock radio. Stay Up is the bounce track, with KJ-52 trading bars with Beckley. Behind Closed Doors keeps the drive in the middle of the record. Epidemic, Hindsight and Light at My Feet fill out the hard middle stretch. A Shame is the honest one — "It's a shame to be ashamed" — and it went to No. 3 on Christian rock. Indivisible plants "In God we trust" in a stadium chant and still sounds like a single. Further / Further from Myself closes the album as the ballad, and it's the one that got the official video.

AllMusic's Alex Henderson heard the same rap-metal water as Kid Rock, Rage Against the Machine and Linkin Park, but with an optimistic Christian message that wasn't fire-and-brimstone. Jesus Freak Hideout's John DiBiase called it a leap in the right direction for a young group, even while saying it wasn't innovative. CCM Magazine's Kevin Breuner graded it an A− and praised the guitar layers and songcraft. Cross Rhythms' Tony Cummings went as far as nine out of ten. Christianity Today's Russ Breimeier called it a well-made project from everyone involved.

How it was made

The Kansas four-piece cut the album with Travis Wyrick at Lakeside Studios in Knoxville, with Pillar credited alongside him as producers. Bob Herdman was among the executive producers on the Flicker release. This is the first full studio album with Henson on lead guitar after the band's earlier Above era. The 2003 remixed reissue brought Andrew "Mudrock" Murdock in for additional production and mixes, shuffled the track order and added a radio mix of the title track. The original eleven stayed the spine either way. Singles rolled through 2003 on Christian rock radio after the May 2002 street date, and the title track later turned up in the baseball game MLB 2005.

Where the score lands

It gets an eight because the hits still hit. Eleven weeks at No. 1 on Christian rock for the title track, a Mainstream Rock top-40 peek, a Dove for Hard Music Album, more than 300,000 sold and a Billboard 200 foothold are not small numbers for a Flicker hard-rock record from western Kansas. Henderson, DiBiase, Breuner and Cummings were all broadly on side, even when they flagged how close the sound sat to the early-2000s rap-metal template. So why not a nine? The derivative charge is fair — you can hear P.O.D., Linkin Park and the era's radio formula in the architecture — and the record doesn't invent a new lane the way some Loud Faith shelves demand. But it's not a seven either. The singles, the radio run, Henson's first full album in the band and that official Further from Myself video earn the eight.

Watch

Further from Myself leads with the official video. Behind it are album tracks for Fireproof, Indivisible, Echelon and A Shame.

Where this album sits on Loud Faith

Christian hard rock on Flicker in 2002 was a real radio fight, not a side project. Fireproof came out of Kansas, put Pillar on mainstream rock charts, won a Dove, sold past 300,000 and still carries the title-track chant. It's the Pillar record that belongs on the metal shelf here. Further from Myself leads the videos, with Fireproof, Indivisible, Echelon and A Shame right behind it.