Forever Reign

Album Review

Something of a CCM supergroup, One Sonic Society is comprised of worship music lifers Jason Ingram, former Hillsong United member Paul Mabury, and ex-Delirious? guitarist Stu G. And with all that combined experience writing and performing for Christians the world over, it should come as little surprise that this trio has concocted a collection of songs that seems sometimes a little too radio- and worship-service ready. That's not to diminish from what works so well on their full-length debut (they introduced themselves to the world with a trio of EPs in 2009). Tracks like "Always" and "Almighty God" have a deep emotional pull that call to mind epic rockers like Coldplay and U2. And "Just to Be with You" avoids the cliché of the slow crescendo build with the band choosing instead to stick to a nice magisterial pace that adds so much more emotional impact. The rest of the album, though, resides in the tried-and-true formula of the crawl to the big rafter-shaking chorus followed by a quiet contemplative bridge and then a closing chorus soaked in volume and incident.