Remember When… Artist:  Off the Record  Label:  Tooth & Nail Records  Time:  11 Tracks/35:02 minutes

Tooth & Nail's Off the Record plays an intriguing blend of genres that is equal parts punk, skate and heavy metal.  Their debut album, Remember When…, opens with the title track's two minute instrumental introduction, before lead singer Keith Allen half-sings/half-screeches:

    Silent screams echo through your life
    Can anyone hear of what has just become?
    All alone, no time for a change
    No sight for an end…

As you can see, the band treads a line lyrically, not quite Christian cliché, but also not anywhere near poetry.  The lyrics are, however, better than most Christian punk and should be highly enjoyable to fans of the genre.

On a purely musical level, Remember When… starts off strong with the one-two-three punch of the title track, the infectious "Good Times," and "Fabricated Lies" but loses a lot of steam about six or seven songs into the album.  Fortunately for the listener, the album is rather short (just over thirty minutes), so the monotony really doesn't have a lasting effect, and the album will make good driving music for summer vacation.

Michial Farmer 3/18/2000