Oh Grave, Where Is Thy Victory

Album Review

Feel like you've heard this before? Here I Come Falling come screamo-ing out of Springfield, MO like oh so many young outfits of the late '00s. Their guitar leads may be plugged straight into the Devil's amplifier, yet their feet are planted on the path to Christ the Savior. No wonder their debut album, Oh Grave, Where Is thy Victory, boasts such Byzantine poetry for lyrics — the meaning is suspect and subject to endless speculation and interpretation, just like most Sunday morning sermons. Unfortunately, all metaphors aside, listeners will have to be pre-brainwashed by the likes of Underoath and Haste the Day in order to drink Here I Come Calling's surprise-free Kool-Aid without questioning its mundane attempts at creativity. Modestly engaging numbers like "Put the City to the Sword," "Bad Company Ruins Good Manners," and "Like Sheep Among Wolves" rely on ever-shifting riffs and inter-colliding melodies to keep things interesting (much like their titles, which have little to do with the lyrics), while screamer Colby Moore projectile-vomits into the mic like a member of Hell's own Glee Club. You know, the usual. Elsewhere, tracks like "A Ghost Town for a Graveyard" and "The Birds in the Sky, the Fish in the Sea" introduce some electronic bits into their somewhat more mild-mannered midsections, almost like optional extra credit for this school project of a band. But the uncharacteristically guitar-free, piano-and-synth number, "And so We'll be with the Lord," testifies to the bandmembers' (or at least keyboard player Jeff Choate's) true musical ambitions to one day get a job as a church organist, once this "rock and roll thing" blows over.