So what if you took the three guitar, Brown note devastation of The Acacia Strain and mixed it with the worshipful heft of Sleeping Giant and other Christian hardcore bands? You’d get The Great Commission and Strikefirst’s best (and heaviest) release since their re-ignition and arguably heavier than anything parent label Facedown Record has released.

Named after Christ’s instructions to his disciples after he was resurrected, The Great Commission, with their three guitars (including a female, Angela Razo who also provides some fierce vocals) is a truly burly beast with the record entirely based around simplistic gigantic chugging riffs and ultra hefty breakdowns. Truthfully, this stuff is as heavy if not heavier as anything Liferuiner, Kill What I Adore, Built Upon Frustration, Black My Heart or Redline ever laid down. Throw in the forcefully Christian yet positive lyrics, and you get a devastating record that should give Impending Doom a run for heaviest Christian band.

Be warned though, as on a good stereo, tracks like “Every Knee Shall Bow”, “Let Your Kingdom Come”, “I Dub City”, “A New Hope”, “The Road less Traveled” and “Iron Sharpens Iron” will make your skeleton will crumble inside your skin. That being said, on a bad stereo Chris Eck’s recording and mastering effort’s low end will simply wash out and sound like shit- it can literally be too much on some stereos. Like label mates Sleeping Giant the album ends with a sort of hymnal in the form of “Dawning of a New Day” but The Great Commission still beef up the song with their pummeling sound.

On the downside though, the album is pretty singular in its assault-there’s no real respite and it lacks the variety and creativity of Sleeping Giant, but that could also be take as a benefit and refusal to inject the expected Christian grace filled clichés into their merciless rumble. Also, main vocalist Justin Singh sounds like he’s got a mouth of bolts, but luckily he’s aided often by Razo’s Candance Kusculain impression as well as a veritable host of guest vocalists like Erik Gregson (xDeathstarx), Thom Green (Sleeping Giant) and Brook Reeves (Impending Doom) to name a few.

On a sidenote, it’s nice to hear that the band are trying to help (and I quote) “a scene full of angry, broken kids hateful kids that come from broken homes and dysfunctional families. We can speak to them from experience because we used to be those kids. We know their broken, hardened hearts can be healed and we use our music as a way to reach them.” It’s a nice change for the usual Christian and Straight Edge (and even metal) rhetoric.

Whereas The Inquisition used torture to get people to covert to Christianity, The Great Commission uses open note breakdowns to beat non believers into submission, and I for one hope a Papal Bull isn’t issued to prevent The Great Commission from furthering God’s work.

[Visit the band's website]

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