John 3:16 - Visions of the Hereafter - Visions of Heaven, Hell, Purgatory

Alright, well, when I saw this release sitting, just waiting to be grabbed, I got my grubby little hands on it and listened to it hoping for a wonderful experience. I am a complete fan of religion, so the artist's name, John 3:16, caught my attention. After all, it is the scripture that tells mankind how to be saved according to the Holy Bible. And even the title of the album caught my attention. I wondered how the Visions of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory could be rendered through music. And, well, it's not quite what I expected, but this music really just does not save me in any way.

But, before I so much as utter a peep, I will say that this music is not bad in any sense. It's just not that inspirational, motivating, capitulating, or whatever other word you could possibly think of using to describe a feeling of either disappointment or boredom. I think boredom would be more the word for myself.

"The Ninth Circle" serves to open the album and has a drone type sound to it filled with various ambient sounds, and does not necessarily sound like something I would consider being close to Hell. I really don't know where I could see this song being used, but it certainly reminds me nothing of anything Biblical.

And perhaps that's my problem with the whole album, in general. It's just that all the songs sound okay, but they really just don't feel right to the whole theme of the album. When I think religion, I think of something mystical and sacred. Here, I'm getting standard stuff, nothing really to move off of. Sure, it sounds nice, and this is the artist's rendition of Heaven and Hell and all those other Holy and Unholy places, but I just cannot accept it for what it's trying to be. To put it plainly, it just sounds extremely off putting. May 17 2013