Drawing Black Lines — Project 86

Project 86's Drawing Black Lines came out on BEC Recordings on 21 March 2000, and Atlantic reissued it under its own name after signing the band. It's twelve tracks and runs about fifty-six minutes forty seconds. They recorded it at The Factory Studios in Vancouver with Garth "GGGarth" Richardson producing, the same GGGarth who recorded Rage Against the Machine. Andrew Schwab sang, Randy Torres played guitar and sang, Steven Dail played bass and guitar, and Alex Albert played drums. Here's the running order. Stein's Theme, One-Armed Man (Play On), Me Against Me, PS, Set Me Up, Chimes, A Toast to My Former Self, Sad Machines, Star, Chapter 2, Open Hand and Twenty-Three. It's the Project 86 record that matters most.

Who they were in 2000

In 2000 they were a Christian hard-music band from Orange County on BEC, part of the Tooth & Nail family, and they wore the Christian tag openly. They played rooms that didn't need a soft Christian-pop sticker on the cover. The faith's in the lyrics, and it isn't sugar-coated.

What the critics keep saying about this album

AllMusic's Steve Losey heard the album as a testimony to Christianity that also drives a fist through traditional Christian thinking, with the moral lines from the title drawn from start to finish. He pointed to One-Armed Man, about zombies and needing something real, and to Chimes, with Dail's hypnotic bass under a whisper. He heard Stein's Theme as a song about a fungus that never goes away, and Me Against Me, Open Hand and Sad Machines as ferocious and unflinching. That line about a fist through Christian thinking is still the shortest honest summary of the record.

John DiBiase gave it five stars at Jesus Freak Hideout on 6 November 2000 and called it slamming rock that's nothing like Fisher Price hardcore. Stein's Theme sets the tone, and One-Armed Man stacks harmonised vocals against screams. He thought Me Against Me was a bit redundant. He called PS amazing and creepy, with Japanese spoken word threaded through the middle of the album, and said the uniquely arranged Chapter 2 was the standout. So even with five stars on the board, he still had a quibble about Me Against Me.

Alex Figgis at Cross Rhythms, in CR Mag 57 in June 2000, rated them one of BEC's top acts, with a Gospel focus and a mix of groove, metal, rap and hard rock under GGGarth. He called it groundbreaking and of the highest calibre, in the same neighbourhood as Stavesacre, and picked out PS, Chimes and One-Armed Man. Cross Rhythms interviewed the band that same season, as Atlantic pushed them into the mainstream and they played Tomfest with P.O.D. Schwab talked about drawing lines in the culture instead of hiding from it. Wikipedia later described the move away from the rapcore of their debut towards metalcore and alt-metal, with the lyrics turning outward to look at society. Sales figures from the Cross Rhythms era put it near 100,000 worldwide, and some counts get close to 120,000. That's a solid mid-level result for a BEC and Atlantic release, and there's no need to inflate it. PS made the Blair Witch 2 soundtrack. In October 2000 the band joined the Kings of the Game tour with P.O.D., Hed PE and Linkin Park.

Four tracks from this LP

One-Armed Man (Play On) was the official video, and it leads off the videos. Losey heard it as a song about zombies and needing something real, DiBiase loved the harmonies against the screams, and Figgis named it a standout.

Stein's Theme is the opener. Losey heard it as a song about a fungus that never goes away, and DiBiase said it sets the tone. It draws the line before the fist lands.

PS is what DiBiase called the amazing, creepy one in the middle of the album, with its Japanese spoken word. Figgis named it a standout, and it ended up on the Blair Witch 2 soundtrack. It's the song that tells you this record won't sit quietly in a church bargain bin.

Chimes and Chapter 2 show two different sides of the album. Chimes has the hypnotic Dail bass and whisper Losey loved, and Chapter 2 is the uniquely arranged standout DiBiase picked. Twenty-five years on, Chapter 2 still sounds like nothing else.

After those four, spend some time with Me Against Me, A Toast to My Former Self, Sad Machines, Open Hand and the nearly thirteen-minute closer Twenty-Three. Just know DiBiase found Me Against Me redundant, and some critics thought the closer ran long. Those complaints are fair, and so are Losey's fist line, Figgis calling it groundbreaking and DiBiase's five stars.

What the room sounded like in 2000

GGGarth's sessions in Vancouver put Orange County hard music on a BEC and Atlantic release without smoothing Schwab into soft Christian pop. After the major-label deal, the CDs sat in Christian bookstores and mainstream shops alike. By some counts it sold nearly 120,000 copies, PS ended up on the Blair Witch 2 soundtrack, and by October the band was on the Kings of the Game tour with P.O.D., Hed PE and Linkin Park. It isn't a chart story. It's the Project 86 album that matters most, the One-Armed Man video still hits hard, and critics still call it groundbreaking.

The score

It gets an 8/10.

Nine's out of reach. DiBiase dinged Me Against Me for being redundant, and the nearly thirteen-minute closer and a few long stretches in the middle are real problems. Seven's too stingy, though. Losey's line about a fist through Christian thinking, DiBiase's five stars for slamming rock, and Figgis calling it groundbreaking and of the highest calibre still carry weight. One-Armed Man, Stein's Theme, PS, Chimes and Chapter 2 still explain Christian hard music better than most. It's the GGGarth-era Project 86 record that matters, flaws and all.

Where this album sits on Loud Faith

Christian hard music on BEC and Tooth & Nail in 2000 was reaching well past church halls. It meant a push from Atlantic, Tomfest shows, GGGarth behind the board, and kids learning the Orange County band's name before the later lineup changes. Drawing Black Lines is the Project 86 album that matters most. AllMusic said it drives a fist through traditional Christian thinking, JFH gave it five stars while calling one song redundant, and Cross Rhythms called it groundbreaking. One-Armed Man is the song to start with.