The Shot Heard Round The World

The saying goes that close only counts with Horseshoes and Handgrenades.  Knoxville, TN Christian Heavy Metal Band Disciple gave this title to their eighth full length studio release to indicate that they had no intention of letting success go to their head and "mail in" the new album. They didn't just hit the target with this release, they obliterated it.

The Track Listing:

1. Dear X, You Don't Own Me
2. Watch it Burn
3. Invisible
4. The Ballad of St. A
5. Shot Heard Round The World
6. Collision
7. Battle Lines
8. Remedy
9. Eternity
10. Revolution: Now
11. Deafening
12. Worth The Pain

The opening track Dear X, You Don't Own Me is a description of the New Creation that we are in Christ.  Throughout the song, Lead Vocalist Kevin Young describes his "relationship" with Pain, Shame, Hate and Anger, and makes his break with them, as the Bible says, there is now no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ.  The song contains this memorable bridge

  "Go ahead, put a target on my forehead, you can fire but you've got no bullets.  I was yours, I'm not yours anymore, you don't own me."

The intensity doesn't let up for Watch it Burn, but the band briefly slows things down for the Best Song on the album, the Skillet like Invisible, which seems to be a companion piece to Whatever Reason from their previous album, Southern Hospitality. Both songs seem to be drawn from the parable of the prodigal son. A drum solo segues this song into The Ballad of St A, a metalcore masterpiece, which then flows into The Shot Heard Round the World, a battle cry with "Our Bloody Fists Raised to the Sky."
Quickly becoming my favorite is Eternity, a hard rock song about heaven.  The biblical imagery is breathtaking.

 "...where the shadows are never discovered, tears are nothing more than a memory, death isn't alive any longer.  We'll awaken to eternity."  But lest we think this band has its head in the clouds, we are reminded that, despite the trials, life is worth living.  "It's worth the pain."

I've tried to make this review brief, because in my opinion, there isn't a bad song on this album. Rather than blather on an on, let me say 5 Big Emeralds.  I would give more if I could.  Still deciding on perfect album status, but even without that it almost seems a shoe-in for its category at the least in the Platinum Vinyl Awards.  The Shot Heard Round the World?  To quote another track, it's deafening.