Album Review - Crown of Thorns - Faith

Crown of Thorns "Faith" has been half a decade in the making. Unfortunately, all the time and hardwork doesn't particularly show. "Lost Cathedral" is remembered to be their grandest moment, and nothing after it has really managed to capture the feel of that one record. They are still trying. Jean Beauvoir was known before CoT as a solo artist (something of a rock pop Prince type of singer), co-writing for KISS, and part of The Plasmatics before all of that. Then in the early 90s he formed up Crown of Thorns, played some shows with Bon Jovi, and eventually released "Lost Cathedral". That last act shot the band cleanly into the melodic rock area, and two other very nice releases followed it, though not to the standards of that shining moment.

"Faith" is a long time coming and many people had lost just that in their hopes of another Crown of Thorns release. And it's not that "Faith" is a blasphemous tragedy of rock, it just seems to be lacking a pulse point. The songs are pleasant enough but rarely strive to be more than that. The disc starts out in a positive light with a couple of melodic pieces that have some rock fuel behind them, but then it just tapers off into a winding procession of boredom. The title track sounds as COT should, a chunky guitar riff cranks along the vocals are straightforward and downright classy.

"All In My Heart" continues the goodwill dishing up a platter that's more of the same in a slightly altered package. Slick, uptempo and very nice. "Living in the Shadows" is a mellow, relaxed ballad that lets Jean's voice stretch and slide into that comfortable relaxed area. It has an effortless feel and is very lite overall. "The One" being much alike but benefiting from a tighter structure and more diverse playing field. While "Living" gets wrapped up in the rat race of repetitiveness, "The One" keeps it clean and fresh. "Rock Ready" chugs out the electric again, and gives off a feel of 80s Deep Purple in a flash of "Stormbringer" in some of those riffs. There's a certain urgency here, and even the vocals seem to have that Ian Gillian edge. The band feels like they are going through the motions here, just for the sake of breaking up their ballads by offering a track that's harder. The forced feeling is hard to shake. Then the album starts to unravel altogether as it slams on the infinite repeat button and keeps throwing the same themes up in one's face.

"Believe Me" is naggingly sentimental, and since the album has already tread down this road a few times, it thus feels more forced than the earlier expressions of lite AOR. In fact, they are beginning to feel a tad desperate here, and unfocused. "Nobody" keeps you waiting for something, just anything interesting to happen. Yet nothing ever does. Grating guitar riffs and a flat as an A cup chorus does nothing to save this Bon Jovi-shadowing track. A sweeping flourish unveils the keyboards for "Stay With Me". This one finds a higher tempo and lifts itself out of the drudgery for blasts of synthesizer and a chorus that just... falls into oblivion. It's a dull disappointment following the promise made by the opening instrumentation and verses that stretch out like a racehorse in mid gallop.

"All I Want To Do" has a Prince feel, noted in the vocals for the poplike opening and verse recurrances. However, the rest of the song is all lovely AOR ballad. Tumbling out in waves of emotion. Sparse verses keep the tension strung tight for the overblown chorus anticipated to sweep you far and away in its luscious melodic waves and the swelling patter of piano. "Home Again" is fair melodic rock back in the uptempo range, that has a tough, raw rock blues licked, Thin Lizzy-like interior that hits you squarely before flying back into the smoothness of free falling feel of spacey AOR. "All Or Nothing" closes the disc in a slow, crawling manner. It is another ballad that lacks that spark... just any spark. A decent diversion but little more than that. It's not going to blow you away or steal your heart or anything dramatic such as that. It's simply there. And that's just not enough.

"Faith" is back and forth like a ping pong game. The ball is sometimes hit correctly and other times it just falls off the table you are left standing there staring at it, wondering why six years couldn't yield a bounty better than this. None of the songs could particularly be branded as garbage. Well, "Nobody" almost makes that cut but somehow manages to keep above average. Jean's voice gets whiney the further you wade into the disc, the guitars lose some of their luster, and even the additions of keyboards often cannot save a song from the fate of the fallen. The first few tracks are solid enough and its touch and go after that. Fans of the band will be more than pleased over this dubious offering, but while there are good songs on display here, they just don't push themselves hard enough to be anything spectacular. And that's where "Faith" ends up hurting the most.

Written by Alanna
Monday, October 13, 2008
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Ratings

Alanna: 5.5/10

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