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When Zach Bolen began working at the Mars Hill U-district campus he started reconstructing the worship teams that played there, and in the process built a band of his own. Together with Nate Garvey, Adam Skatula, Nathan Furtado, and Tom McConnell, Citizens was created.
The band name was born out of Ephesians 2:19, Citizens brings to mind every Christian's allegiance to God.
Bolen explains that the band's primary goal in writing these tributes is to remind people of the battle they've already won. "We're in this war, but Jesus has already won it for us," he explains.
Sweetness Of Freedom is what...
Read More When Zach Bolen began working at the Mars Hill U-district campus he started reconstructing the worship teams that played there, and in the process built a band of his own. Together with Nate Garvey, Adam Skatula, Nathan Furtado, and Tom McConnell, Citizens was created.
The band name was born out of Ephesians 2:19, Citizens brings to mind every Christian's allegiance to God.
Bolen explains that the band's primary goal in writing these tributes is to remind people of the battle they've already won. "We're in this war, but Jesus has already won it for us," he explains.
Sweetness Of Freedom is what I like to call a real rock 'n roll number. I love the driven guitars that add such rock energy. This song just blew me away with its swagger and velocity. This opening track is a brilliant start to what is an amazing album.
In Tenderness slows the pace down, but only slightly. The thing that pulls this album and band out compared to a lot of bands in this rock genre is the amazing and intriguing voice of frontman Zach Bolen. In this song, which has a more indie rock feel, I just love the way the line "Grace that brought me to the thrown of God" comes across.
I love the energy and sound of the whole album. Tracks like Hail The King and Made Alive are amazing tunes they aren't in your face rock songs, instead letting the listener get drawn into the beautiful tones.
I Am Living In A Land Of Death musically calls on the 80's synth sound. Without the synth being over the top, the band use these sounds quietly in this high impacting song. This one came across as a favorite for me with its raw underlying energy which is different to catchy tracks like 'Jesus!'.
On this album the band mix together a couple of original songs and re-arranged hymns like 'I Surrender All', which I at first thought sounded a bit too depressing. The song thankfully builds into a crazy noise of worship that I'm sure is not how the hymn writer would ever of expected it to sound! I love the end of this song, with the screaming lines "Glory To His Name... I Surrender All".
Another quote from frontman Bolen sums up this album for me "We aren't trying to get people to worship the music, we're trying to get them to worship the god that created the music. There's something about music, if done in the right way... it makes us look at something bigger than us." To be fair to Citizen, this rock album lets some amazing lyrics pour out of the songs. What Citizen have done is shown that we can still worship God to amazing rock 'n roll songs that punch above their weight. Just listen to the track Psalm 18 and you will know what I mean.
Review by Jono Davies
LTTM Rating 4 Out of 5 Stars
Standout Tracks
Psalm 18
Sweetness of Freedom
I Am Living In A Land of Death
