Stavesacre emerged in the mid-90s as sort of Christian punk/alternative/metal supergroup. Featuring ex-members of The Crucified, Focused, Chatterbox, The Blamed, scaterd-few, and Saviour Machine, the band had a lot of hype to live up to before their debut album was even heard. And while the members’ previous project mostly dabbled in hardcore, Stavesacre forged new sounds more akin to post-hardcore or alternative metal.
The late 90s landscape was ripe for such a shift, with nu metal and other forms of non-traditional metal emerging. The band’s debut album, Friction, was metal with eager praise from both fans and critics, covering ground that was often neglected in Christian circles. The band was not a carbon copy nor re-imagining of any of the members’ previous project; neither was it a copy of anything in the secular scene. Strongest points of comparison were underground rock bands like Quicksand, Orange 9MM, Helmet, and Fugazi–bands whom had not be strong reference points for the Christian scene up to this point.
While the band’s strongest work would come a few albums later, the debut was solid, to say the least. And it contains what is probably the band’s strongest song to this day, the quasi-ballad “At the Moment.” The song is a great picture of all the band’s strengths rolled into one singular moment–raw yet melodic song structures, earnest lyrics that deal with both struggle and hope all at the same time:
Somewhere I’ve lost my way
From saved to stray and failing
In silence my spirit pleads
Is the vision lost?
Or has it been passed on?
Is there any use continuing?
My soul will wait
My soul waits silently
For God, my God
And I will live
And know some destiny
Still waits for me
