Fireflight

Chances are good you’ve heard, seen, or read about Fireflight in some pretty big forums lately. The title track to their last album, Unbreakable, headlined the promos for NBC’s short-lived series, The Bionic Woman; they were one of three bands to win Taco Bell’s “Feed the Beat” contest and they performed at ESPN’s Winter X Games 13. The band’s videos have even appeared in American Eagle and Journey stores across the country. Not bad for a band who released their Flicker Records debut back in 2006.

Back with their third album, For Those Who Wait, the rock and roll quintet has delivered their most solid record to-date. The crunchy, aggressive guitars are still here in spades, lead singer Dawn Michele’s melodic vocals shine like spotlights aimed at a midnight sky, and the messages of hope and fighting back against the obstacles that confront you—themes which have quickly become hallmarks of Fireflight’s music and ministry—are stronger than ever on this disc.

This is an album that pretty much needs to be turned up to 11 on your stereo from the start. From the sweeping rock of the opening title track, to the in-your-face lead single “Desperate” (which plays like the butt-kicking kissing cousin to the first single they ever released “You Decide”) there’s barely a moment to stop for a breather once the album gets going. And “Fire in My Eyes” is nothing short of a musical concussion grenade. For rock and roll enthusiasts, there is much to like here. 

The band spends a lot of the album showcasing how our lives as Christians are like a war of sorts. Despite the love and assurance we may receive, regardless of the peace God provides for us, there is always something waiting to destroy us. Sometimes we don’t know what God is doing (“For Those Who Wait”), think He is ignoring us (“Desperate”), and feel completely alone and unknown (“Name”), but as “New Perspective” exhorts the listener:

Reach up, reach out/This house is burning down/These walls we’ve built are caving in/Reach up, don’t give up/We’re standing on the ashes/With a clearer view and a new perspective

Stark imagery is everywhere on this record. Not content to simply sing about faith or dealing with struggles, the band imbues these tracks with another dimension of power by creating powerful vocal pictures. On “Desperate,” Dawn sings about “standing on a ledge waving my hands” as she tries to get God’s attention, and “Fire in My Eyes” has a telling title and the following lyric: “I’m burning brighter than the sunlight.” Add to this the references in other tracks to breaking chains and smashing through ceilings, and the Christian’s-walk-as-a-daily-war metaphor comes through loud and clear.

Despite being similar to their first two records, The Healing of Harms and Unbreakable, there is evidence of musical maturity and variety. “All I Need to Be” is a track about being yourself and choosing to die to who you are not, and while it begins as an acoustic number with some orchestral flourishes, it transforms into an ethereal rocker complete with skyscraping guitars and matching vocals from Dawn Michele and Justin Cox. “Recovery Begins” is a largely somber, piano-driven closer that relies on Dawn’s vocals to add further gravitas to a song about remaining silent and still before the Lord. It sounds like it wants to explode into something enormous, but it knows it shouldn’t and so it wisely does not.

Simultaneously defiant and encouraging, aggressive and reassuring, For Those Who Wait packs one hell of a punch on the musical, lyrical, emotional, and spiritual levels. This one is not to be missed.

Tagged as: Brian Palmer, Fireflight, Flicker, For Those Who Wait, rock

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