“September” by Spoken, Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Spoken formed in 1996 and signed to CCM singer-songwriter Crystal Lewis's Metro 1 label the following year. The band's early music was influenced by Rage Against the Machine and P.O.D., mostly consisting of rap-core and nu metal. After releasing three studio records and a greatest hits compilation through Metro 1, the band signed to Tooth & Nail Records in 2003 and released their fourth studio record, A Moment of Imperfect Clarity.
A CHANCE TO CHANGE THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. Spoken's fourth record, A Moment of Imperfect Clarity developed the band's sound from a rap-rock, nu metal band to a melodic post-hardcore band. With the Tooth & Nail years during the explosion of the record label and the mass-marketability of Christian Rock, Spoken gained a greater audience. Also with the backing of the record company, the production on their Tooth & Nail albums increased significantly. On the first Tooth & Nail record for spoken, the band worked with Garth Richardson, better known by his nickname GGGarth. Richardson began his career working on the original Rage Against the Machine record and worked producing hard rock records from the '90s to today. GGGarth produced The O.C. Supertones' Chase the Sun for Tooth & Nail Records in 1999 and then went on to produce Project 86's Drawing Black Lines the next year and later in 2005 their ...And the Rest Will Follow record. But for the band's second record on Tooth & Nail, Last Chance to Breathe, they worked with Travis Wyrick. While GGGarth may have produced a few Christian Rock classics, Wyrick certainly produced more records for bands like P.O.D., Pillar, Disciple, and Nine Lashes, giving a distinct hard rock sound to these bands.
YEARS AGO. From wrought-iron metallic rap-rock to a kind of alternative post hardcore and then back to a faster-paced, almost thrash sound on their self-titled and final record on Tooth & Nail, Spoken is a band constantly in search of their sound. In 2005, screaming was de rigueur of rock music, so a screaming record would allow a band to join a motorcade of rock bands, Christian or secular, in buses and vans on tour until the economy tanked. Reviews for Last Chance to Breathe weren't great, with the album fading into the background of the more successful Pillar and P.O.D. records. But this album will always have a place in my heart for the drives during college and for the times on Sunday walking to the library or cleaning my room before starting on a paper. At one point I sat down with my guitar to play along with the record. You could argue that all of the songs on the record sound the same, and they are certainly similar because they are all in the same key: E minor, at least that's what I found out playing along to it. The opening track, "September," was quite epic on RadioU--production with lead singer Matt Baird's on-key screams. It's the kind of Christian youth fall festival song, and by fall festival, I mean a party without booze and without Halloween costumes, but rather people dressed up as Bible characters. So, before fall gets out of hand and we're camping out in the inglenooks in a ski lodge somewhere, let's enjoy the changing of the seasons with a 2005 hard rock classic.
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