Secrets Keep You Sick
Artist: The Fold  
Label: ©2007 Tooth & Nail
 
Please take out your decoder ring.  The purpose of this exercise is to decipher the art design from Invisible Creature, Inc. on the sleeve insert of “Secrets Keep You Sick.” At first, I thought it was a stupid joke that you have to tilt the sleeve like you are looking at a 3D picture.  It appears like an inside joke, nonetheless, given the title.
 
Tooth & Nail has graced us, or grazed us, however you look at it, with another band in the same vein as just about everything else out there.  It is what the kids are eating up, I guess.  Drop this in your digital system of choice, close your eyes, and I dare you to tell me that there is anything original in this sound. 
 
When Brandon Ebel was stalking out Cornerstone Festival grounds in the early ‘90’s, I thought that maybe we might get a slew of artists with originality to sink your teeth in, just like Mike Knott did with Blonde Vinyl.  Do not get me wrong.  I think with all of the bands/artists on T&N’s roster, there has been some originality.  This is good enough to make “Christian” rock radio, but The Fold does not impress me as upping the ladder towards longevity.  Emo, screamo, post-hardcore…whatever the term, there is no staying power. 
 
The mainstream market is dying. With bands like Radiohead making waves by breaking ties with the same market that has given them pittance on the pennies for their product, you would think that this small little niche we call “Christian rock” would stop trying to be like everybody else.  After all, Christian bookstores have been the place of choice to discover and get your Christian music fix for the last 20-30 years. Hence, the following thought.  If this band is around five years from now and has progressed beyond the populist dregs of modern rock, I will be surprised.  They do have a video on MTV2.  I am sure the kids love them. Still, I see being able to find this a couple of years from now in a used record store.
 
Coming full circle, I am back to the decoder ring.  The thing that stuck out to me about The Fold’s CD is that I could not read it unless I held it up to the glare of the light.  I imagine getting vertigo, therefore getting sick.
 
thecannyshark
November 2007