Release Date: (July 23, 2003)
Label: Northern Records
Producer:

December Hotel
Overall Rating:  ++++

(Let it Begin)

I'm an avid music lover, and an eclectic one at that. There are times when I have been known to choose a CD knowing next to nothing about the album, merely to see what it is like. I did this recently, curious about The Violet Burning. What I did know about the band was that they have been on the scene since 1990, hail from California, and were founded by lead singer Michael J. Pritzl. I also knew of their impressive following, so loyal it seems they believe the band leaves nothing but splendor in their path. So, I was driving around last week with their new CD, This is the Moment, turned down low in my car, distracted by various things on my mind until part of a song caught my ear. I turned up the volume and made a discovery: This CD is good, but it is phenomenal played loud. Very loud. Suddenly I was not quite so distracted. I listened to the entire CD on my way home in Houston traffic. Then I left the CD in my car all week.

I never found a song I wanted to skip. What I found was an album of alternative worship, as well as pop rock at its finest. It also offers hints of New Wave and glam with a guitar riff nostalgic of The Cure here and there. Layers of acoustic and electric guitars are interwoven flawlessly, making for a thing of ethereal and rocking beauty from start to finish.

The first track, 'Lovesick,' is the perfect introduction of the Violet sound which is tinged with the 80s, but in a way that is all their own. By the second track, 'Everywhere I Go,' I sing along to the lyrics which are a reminder that nothing compares to the Creator. It is extremely difficult to be downtrodden while listening to this album because the songs are pure fun, especially 'Radio Jesus Superstar,' as the title conveys. One of my favorite songs is the masterpiece 'Lord, Rescue Me' which opens with hauntingly beautiful harmonies that truly plead before culminating into a driving mantra of distorted electric guitar and drums.

Along with Michael Pritzl, the artisans behind the music are Andrew Prickett (The Prayer Chain) on guitars, Herb Grimaud Jr. on bass, and Sam West (Stavesacre) on drums. The band lineup has varied somewhat over the years, but this musicianship in particular is stunning. Within every song, they make it quite plain where their devotion lies. They do this with the lyrics of each song, but also with their God-given talent on each instrument.

This is the Moment took me on a journey of my soul, infusing me with energy and joy in one song, then solace and peace in the next. I remember a partial quote by Francis Schaeffer on the band's web site which reads, "What one portrays in his art; is the totality of life." The Violet Burning have heeded this wisdom indeed. Their music spans a range of honest human emotions including devotion to Jesus Christ, something we all need to hear vividly in a world of distractions. Let's just say my curiosity was definitely satisfied and my heart healed where need be, all in moments of rock.

~Jenni Simmons
 

It was somewhat confusing when Michael Pritzl announced that he was releasing an album as The Gravity Show. When you have a band that is essentially a solo project with a rotating cast of musicians - as has always been the case with Pritzl and The Violet Burning - why exactly do you need a side project? The release of "This Is The Moment", Pritzl's seventh release under the Violet Burning moniker and eighth overall, provides a bit of context that makes his thinking a little clearer.

Pritzl has always been a bit schizophrenic as a writer, alternating between glammy, dense, mood-based offerings and more intimate and spiritual work. When he's been able to fuse those two sides of himself, as was the case on the utterly stunning self-titled record, the results are simply staggering. But there have always been songs that worked well in one sphere or the other, but not in both. Think of the Gravity Show and Violet Burning monikers as a filing system to handle this problem. Looking for a bit of glam swagger? The Gravity Show is what you want. Looking for a little more introspection? Look to the Violet Burning. Either way, you're going to come out with one damn fine record as Pritzl has not yet come close to putting out a bad disc.

This time out, Pritzl turns to a band of seasoned players - The Prayer Chain's Andy Prickett, Stavesacre/Saviour Machine's Sam West, and his longtime bassist Herb Grimaud - to offer up the most polished and lush disc of his career. Guitars shimmer away into the distance, those Cure-influenced basslines are again in full effect, and Pritzl is in fine voice as always. When Pritzl is on his game, he is a writer able to draw out those swells of unfulfilled longing and spiritual ache most of us don't have the nerve to speak of out loud, and that is again the case here with the slow burn of tracks like "Slowa", "Lord, Rescue Me" and "Let It Begin" (which plays out like a b-side from the Prayer Chain's seminal "Mercury" album) cresting into a superb emotional catharsis.

Again, as is very often the case with Pritzl's work, it is very difficult to say whether this is meant to be approached as a rock record or as a worship album, and again, it's that ambiguity that provides one of the disc's greatest strengths. Pritzl moves easily from the "sacred" to the "secular" and back again, and in the process, breaks down the barriers that we tend to erect between the two spheres and lends a breadth of scope and vision to his work that can be staggering at times.

Ironically, if there's a significant weakness to the disc, it's that Pritzl seems to have been in a predominantly good mood when he wrote the tracks. While I certainly wouldn't wish ill on someone for my own gain, Pritzl is most compelling working in minor keys and though the more uptempo work is still solid, it just doesn't seem to carry the same emotional heft as some of his more difficult work. Yes, tracks like "Lovesick" and "Everywhere I Go" may have catchy hooks and singalong choruses, but they also seem as though they could have been written by any number of people whereas the aforementioned "Slowa" could only have come from Pritzl's pen. When you're capable of something that distinctive, then anything else comes off as slightly substandard, no matter how good it would sound in another context or from another performer.

In all, though "This Is The Moment" may not be a challenger for the top position in the Pritzl discography - that position is still held securely by the self-titled disc - it does stand as further proof that any day Pritzl chooses to bring new material into the world is a good day indeed.

~Chris Brown

  The Violet Burning (homepage)

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