Album Review :
God - God II: Jesus Christ - The Origin, The Life, Death & Resurrection Of Jesus Christ

This mysterious band has been making music since 2016.  Their website states, “GOD will challenge you to consider your life, death through the power of music.”  While I am in contact with the band members, repeated requests for information regarding the member(s) have been unsuccessful—even to the point of denying my request to know which country the band is from.

This is the second album from the band, and there are two more planned—each one with a conceptual theme.  God I focused on the nature of God, while God II as the subtitle suggests, is all about the person and work of Jesus Christ.  Subsequent releases will focus on the Holy Spirit (God III) and Revelation (God IV).  But if it all sounds a bit too heady or preachy, don’t fret—the music on these releases is entirely instrumental.  The song titles refer to specific things regarding Jesus Christ, but there are no lyrics.  There are, however, videos that coincide with each song, each aimed at inspiring thought and worshipful reflection.

While the statement evokes a sort of mystery, or even mission, it could also come across as potentially pretentious—especially if the music isn’t good.  Fortunately, the band delivers the quality in that department.  Technically proficient, progressive, instrumental djent metal with nods towards post-metal is what we have here.  While my attempts at finding out about the band members yielded no satisfactory results, I was able to find out what instruments were used to create the challenging music: 4-String Bass, 8-String Octave Bass, Baritone 6-String Guitar on rhythms, 5-String Clean Bass and the use of multiple 6-String Guitars for leads and ambience.  God II features a good mix of heavy riffing, melodic leads and ambient soundscapes, and while the ideas presented are entirely through the sounds created rather than lyrical concepts, it is easy to see how one could use this for worship purposes.

Perhaps the best part of all is that GOD has released all of their music, and will continue to do so, entirely free to the listener via their Bandcamp page.

–Loyd Harp