We Need Each Other
Artist:  Sanctus Real www.SanctusReal.com
Label: Sparrow Records
Time:  10 tracks/40:05 min.
 
From the moment that I heard the clear tenor of Sanctus Real’s lead singer Matt Hammitt break in above the driving guitar riffs that open “Turn on the Lights,” I was immediately transported to 1990:  I was a freshman in high school, had been a Christian for years, and though I had been warned about the evils of rock music, I knew that there was something about the pound of drums and the wail of an electric guitar that made my heart thump a bit faster and my spirit lift. So, I did what many other Christian teens in the early nineties did to safely satisfy their rock-n-roll cravings. I turned to Petra. Still somewhat controversial for their appropriation of the “devil’s music,” Petra’s 1990 album Beyond Belief was packed full of songs that were characteristic of the band’s anthem rock style, were easy to sing along with, and were tinged with just enough edgy guitar work and energetic drumming to make them interesting. 

Fast forward to 2008 and a new release by one of Christian rock’s most popular bands. When listening to Sanctus Real’s We Need Each Other, it’s clear to an “older” person like myself that Hammit and his fellow band mates have inherited the mantle left by Petra’s John Schlitt and Bob Hartman. Musically speaking, many of the songs on the album seem to draw from what has been most appealing about the rock and roll genre over the past two decades, and it seems that this project is evidence that in the world of Contemporary Christian Music, we have indeed come quite a long way. The title track “We Need Each Other,” along with “Sing,” and “Lay Down My Guns,” for example, show a complexity and musical depth that are very modern in nature, and yet their catchy choruses dare the listener to not sing along, in the tradition of the very best rock anthems from the eighties and early nineties. The opening chords and drum work on “Eternal” sound quite a bit like U2’s “Yahweh” (which itself harkens back to some of the band’s work on their 1987 release Joshua Tree). EMI CMG Label Group President Peter York gets to flex his musical muscles on the guitar licks that open the album’s first track “Turn On the Lights” in a style that could fairly be described as “classic,” yet they are developed into a song with a decidedly contemporary feel.
 
It seems, however, that Sanctus Real has a bit of catching up to do in terms of lyrical depth and sophistication. “Black Coal,” and “Eternal,” for example, play with extended metaphors that break down and loose their effectiveness by the ends of the songs. Easy, predictable rhymes dominate many tracks. The song “Leap of Faith” contains the couplet “You love to drown your fears/ But you've been drowning for years in tears” and “Whatever You’re Doing” includes “It's time for healing time to move on/ It's time to fix what's been broken too long/ Time to make right what has been wrong/ It's time to find my way to where I belong.” Since the band obviously has some of the best musical chops in the business, it would be advantageous for them to start to hone their lyric-writing skills as well. 
 
The album’s sweet surprise is the song “Half Our Lives,” a duet between Hammitt and guest vocalist Katie Herzig. The song is a nostalgic look through the eyes of a child who is trying to squeeze as much living out of a summer day as he possibly can.  Herzig beautifully laces her crystal clear voice into the loosely woven web of sound that is refreshingly different from the other tracks on the album, both musically and lyrically. It is gratifying to know that the band has the freedom to explore themes and sounds that diverge, if even a little bit, from the norm expected by much of the CCM market.
 
In spite of the band’s numerous successes, the members of Sanctus Real are very well aware that they do not stand alone. As many of the songs on this newest project proclaim, we do need each other. Matt Hammitt says that “We need to come together as the body of Christ, unifying to see God’s work done through us. There’s so much simple truth in the statement, ‘we need each other.’ We can accomplish so much more if we stand together as one.”  Sanctus Real is doing a commendable job with the legacy it has inherited from CCM’s older rock bands. I think the guys from Petra would be proud.
 
Jennifer Monroe, February 15, 2008