Blessed Are The Persecuted
by Overcome
Yep, it’s another one of them hardcore bands. For awhile there, that seemed to be all that Tooth and Nail was releasing, with stuff from Unashamed, Bloodshed, Everdown, and this band, Overcome. Now, if you’ve read my Strongarm review, you’ll probably see that I know very little about hardcore music. It’s a genre that I’ve only recently started listening to. So I can’t really compare this stuff to any other bands, other than the few I’ve heard.
With that in mind, I’ll say that Overcome doesn’t really sound like the other hardcore bands I’ve heard. There’s a much more polished, almost metal/thrash tint to this band’s music, which is not a bad thing. At times, it almost reminds me of the punk/thrash veterans One Bad Pig (not a bad thing). The music has much more of a melodic nature than bans such as Focused. In fact, some of the stuff has some great pop hooks, propelled along with very rhythmic basslines courtesy of Jason Obergfoll. His basslines add an almost funk-esque feel to some of the music. Drummer Ryan Hayes must have an inexhuastible energy source, since he maintains an almost breakneck pace throughout the entire album.
But what sets this band apart from some of the other hardcore bands I’ve heard are the vocals. In the Tooth and Nail catalog, it was said that Jason Stinson’s vocals will “put the fear of God into you” and I will not disagree. There’s really no other way to describe it. He pretty much screams his head off through every song, stating his mind. One can’t help but listen, as if he is railing against all of the forces of Satan by himself. At times, he almost reminds of Corey Womack, the infamous lead screamer of One Bad Pig.
The lyrics are good and solid. While not as poetic as Strongarm’s, the lyrics are all well-written, simple, and upfront. They range from topics such as dedication to Christ and personal failures to problems in the church, veganism, and persecution. “Prayer” reminds me of many of the Psalms, where David is crying out for God’s cleansing and forgiveness. On “Understanding”, Stinson, puzzled about the world’s ignorance and hate and futility in looking to it for answers, finally realizes: “This world is full of so many lies/Satan owns the lie and we’re all being fooled/We’re all being fooled/Save us, Save us from this world of hate.“
The album closes out with “Blessed Are The Persecuted”, a song about being wholly dedicated to Christ in the face of persecution, with the thought that seems to dominate Overcome’s message as a band: “We feel your hate/actions speak louder than words/You hate us, you try to silence truth with your lies/It will take much more, if you think you can shut us down/Your efforts are worthless against us/We will always stand our ground.“
Whenever I want to listen to something that will immediately move and me and get me going, I reach for this album because there ain’t a slow song in the bunch. I don’t say that to dismiss the witness that this band has, but the music never fails to get me out of the chair and going nuts. It’s like an intense adrenaline rush straight to the soul. This album is far more immediate and accessible that Strongarm or Unashamed; with time, their lyrical and musical depth should only increase. These guys are still fairly young, so expect some good things to come from them.
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