Oooookay! I gave this album quite some time to fully try to 'get' it. Straight up…this is Jesus Metal; or White Metal, Christian Metal, Christianized Power Metal or whatever else you would like to call it. Let's get the formalities out of the way first. This band revolves around one person – Matt Smith – who does all the vocals, guitars, keys, bass, drums, mixing, engineering and production all by himself. That is actually quite impressive as the production and sound of this album is really top notch.
Musically, it is unfortunate that I think this is standard power metal. Any number of albums of this kind sounds the same. You know…have a long solo on the song intro, double bass, soaring melodies, high speed chugging riffs and melodic guitar leads topped off with cleanly sung, high and melodic vocals. There is no doubt Mr. Smith is a talented musician and Theocracy is an effort worthy to be proud of. I just don't think it is anything more than another drop in the ocean.
Nothing out there is free from a point of view and every band, whether actively or in a manner of subtlety, preaches a certain ideology through their music. So this album is not losing any points for its ideological content. I can tolerate Christian lyrics and do not really have a problem with it. My problem with this disc is its musical typicality. Generic power metal is something I am very unwilling to tolerate anymore, so no matter how much I admire the effort put into this album, I just cannot be honest and give this a rating any higher than what I did. Maybe someone who hasn't gotten enough of this style of metal will enjoy this more. Check it out if you fall into that category.
