Metal A Bye Baby In The Tree Top

Imagine if you will the brutality of Living Sacrifice or Norma Jean mixed with the melodic sensibilities of Life In Your Way or Kids In The Way and you'll have an idea of the powerful music that 7 Angels 7 Plagues play. Go ahead, think about it ... Alright.
"Jhazmyne's Lullaby" is melodic metalcore at it's finest. Unfortunately it's also the only full length album the band released (RIP as of 2002). It would have been interesting to see if the band could continue with such great music. The guitarist and bassist (Ryan Morgan and Kyle Johnson ) went on to form Misery Signals (featured later) but in my opinion it just ain't the same ....

Ah well. "Jhazmyne's Lullaby" starts with the Norma Jean style brutalness on "A Farewell to a Perfect score" which continues into "Someday". "Dandelion" and "Acadia Fades (Jhazmyne's Lullaby pt.II)" feature bone crushing fist pounding riffing with the later ending with powerful crunchy riff. "Silent Death/Crowded Lives" has a metal sound as well as a very xDisciplex AD style riffing to start the song off with a *head* bang and ending with an emotionally melodic outro.

Mixed in with the chunky and hardcore vocals (which are not bad on the ears as far as hardcore vocals go.) Are "The Afternoon" which is a raw acoustic instrumental which lets us catch our breaths before being pummeled by "Away With Words" (which I'll get to shortly). The album ends with the title track "Jhazmyne's Lullaby (part 1 ???)" which is a beautiful piano instrumental reminding us that 7 Angels 7 Plagues know how to move the listener emotionally and lets us reflect on what we've just been through.

My favourite track is "Away With Words". Now darn near all the songs feature various degrees of melody, I feel that "Away With Words" perfects the mixture. It starts off with a freaky intro and leads into a heartwrenching melodic bit with acoustic guitars to emphasize the melody. Then the song just brutalizes you with a crunchy middle section and leaves us listeners emotionally drained. I love the "drums in a can" sound they use part way through. It brings a vulnerable to the song and breaks down our emotional walls.

7 Angels 7 Plagues are a very passionate band, the members are Christian which gives the songs a sense of spiritualness although rather vague. However, the vocals are powerful and the lyrics are thought provoking and this all adds heavily to the emotions on the album. The band all feel strongly about what they are performing and it really shows. It is a shame we will no longer experience this amazing band, but you can check out Misery Signals or even As I Lay Dying which is like 7Angels7Plagues' younger brother and who'll I'll feature next.