The Desert Fathers

This is a band that took me completely off guard. It's a mix of pop rock and indie experimentalism with a tinge of spacey jam-band rock. It's really grabbing. The first song, "Agnus Dei" resembles a gregorian chant, just like the song "Gloria in Excelsis Deo." One thing that gets me is that they're a big Christian band, and in one of their interludes, they have a monologue given by a silly sounding old man who makes fun of evolution. To each his/her own, I guess.

The guitars on the album generally rock out chainsaw style in hard to decipher chords in hard to decipher patterns. The bass is barely audible in a lot of songs, and is meant to just accent the guitar work. In other tracks, though, like "Peace in That," the bass takes the lead line while guitars are the accent. Drums are straight forward rock. Think AC/DC style. Put it together with spacey, stringy vocal lines and shouted statements every once and a while, and you have The Desert Fathers.

I think generally the best way to describe them is "weird." But in a really good way. It's not sing-a-long music. It seems like it could be background music for a crazy artistic flick, but it holds it's own as music. As much as I dig it, I still think it could have been done a little better. I don't know how, I just know that I'm not dying to listen to more of it. I still say they merit a good listening. Check 'em out, and if you don't, your loss. And I'll come murder you. Or not. Who knows?