Sacred music is basically at the root of all the music we know. The oldest gospel songs inspired blues and jazz, which in turn inspired Elvis who, it can be argued (but not here), inspired everything else. Religious language and metaphor in music can often lend it an additional power and substance; Moby’s Play album being one of the more recent examples of this. It is entirely possible to listen to sacred music whatever your ideology, but it does sometimes mean that the music has to be of sufficient interest to make up for the lack of relevant lyrical content. Alas.

I tried to give this album a chance, really I did, but upon the fifth wince-filled listen I gave up searching for any saving graces and began plotting the panning I feared Canadian Christian rock group Thousand Foot Krutch’s third album, The Flame In All Of Us, might deserve. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing entirely offensive about this album. Everything is executed with a reasonable polish, all instruments are played well and the production is just fine. However, there is such a lack of even the remotest shred of originality and authenticity that it really is quite difficult to listen to. You get the feeling throughout the 12 tracks that you’ve heard this somewhere – well, everywhere - before. Linkin’ Park lurk around every chord-change, while Stain’d will surely be on the ‘phone asking for their melodies back. Blink 182 even make an appearance at one point, the chorus melody on the track New Drug being an almost carbon copy of Anthem Part 2. The vocalist Trevor McNevan’s style and phrasing are a tired, nay, completely shagged out cliché from the Fred Durst and that chap out of Nickelback school of crooning. There is a brief moment on Broken Wing where McNevan makes a valiant effort to lighten the monotony by demonstrating his top range with some nice vocal rises and falls, to reasonable effect. Along with Wish You Well, Broken Wing shares the dubious honour of being best track on the album. Wish You Well is actually quite a nice track, a seven minute ballad with soothing cello and subtle harmonies. But, as the last track, it arrives a little too late in the day to save TFK on this outing. A solid but chronically boring album.

Jim Groves