“To Fly” by Day of Fire, Thursday, October 13, 2022
In Christian Rock in the ‘90s and ‘00s, nothing spelled success as a conversion testimony. Founding Day of Fire, Josh Brown brought with him the testimony of a near drug overdose before turning to Christianity. Starting his music career as the lead singer of Nu Metal band Full Devil Jacket, Brown toured with Nickelback, Creed, and others and even played at the infamous Woodstock '99.
EVERY MORNING THERE'S A BROKENNESS YOU SWALLOW. After a fairly successful debut album released in 2000 that spawned two radio singles, Full Devil Jacket was about to record their follow up. While on tour with Creed, Brown overdosed on heroin, but survived. After his near death experience, Brown quit music, becoming a Christian and rebuilding his life. In 2004, Brown's new band Day of Fire signed to Essential Records, Sony Music's Christian imprint, and released their self-titled album. Much of the album contrasts the darkness of Brown's past with the hope he found in Christianity. The album was well received on Christian Rock radio and won a Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year in 2005. The story of rebirth, watching a spiritual baby grow from spiritual sensorimotor to spiritual preoperational, particularly from someone in world, was confirmation that evangelism worked. Day of Fire recorded three records between 2004 and 2010 and went on hiatus after Brown reconnected with Full Devil Jacket for what had started as a one-off reunion to raise money for deceased lead guitarist Michael Reaves, who died of cancer.
YOU WERE MADE TO OVERCOME. In 2015 Josh Brown told the Jackson Sun that the reason he left the music industry in 2000 was to get sober, but he felt that he left his bandmates in Full Devil Jacket not "the right way." After playing a benefit, Full Devil Jacket released Valley of Bones with Brown on lead vocals. Full Devil Jacket didn't become a Christian Rock band, but Brown still claimed to be a believer. He stated: "Every record I've done since the beginning, it's one line of thought." Day of Fire was one of my most played CDs in Junior year of high school, particularly on Tuesday nights when my sister and I took a Sociology class at the local community college. We played that record until Falling Up's Dawn Escapes was released and took over for the rest of the year. Day of Fire's follow up records lacked the smoothness of their debut, and so I never listened to them more than a few times each. Weaving together Old Testament imagery and rock songs about depression and addiction the album felt like the perfect soundtrack to a Christian high school drama. "To Fly" ends the record, reiterating the band's message: you are more than your addictions. "You were made to overcome."
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