Echo Hollow - Diet Of Worms (1998)
Founding fathers of Christian metal, Guy Ritter and Gary Lenaire (formerly of Tourniquet), are back! The first track on this 7 song CD has Tourniquet written all over it and could have fit easily on any of that bands releases. Tracks 2 through 7 are all together different though. Very original. Hard rock/metal with charm, intelligence, talent and great production. The second song "Thursday" has some very interesting lyrics, it stems from the school shooting in Oregon (before the infamous Columbine incident) and as it turns out both Gary and Guy are alumni of that very school. Most of the songs are fairly long and heavy enough to classify as modern metal with the possible exceptions of "A Fools Errand" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday", the former having a real "boogie" feel to it and the latter being a cover of the U2 classic. You should not pass this one up as Guy Ritter is one of the best vocalists Christian metal has ever heard. -- Review by Norm