Mehida - Blood And Water

I recently got this new Christian melodic metal band's cd and hadn't had much time to listen to it because I also got the new Rob Rock and Nightwish at the same time so they kind of took precedent over this.
Well, now that I have had time to give this a few good spins I must say it's easily one of the better Christian albums of the last couple years.
The band has a very modern edge that should appeal to fans of styles ranging from modern rock to traditional heavy metal. Jani Stefanovic (Divinfire, Essence Of Sorrow) does some really great guitar work on here bringing in a downtunded tone with lots of chugging riffs. Vocalist Thomas Vikstrom (Candlemass, Therion) really shines on here as well with his strong power metal style voice. To add to the name dropping list one only need mention keyboardist extrordinaire Mikko Harkin (Random Eyes, Sonata Arctica, Essence Of Sorrow) is in the mix. Mikko has always had a knack of creating soundscapes with luscious keys without overshadowing the heaviness of the guitar. Blood and Water is no exception as the songs are beautifully heavy! But what about the actual songs you may ask? Well, they are strong and well structured. Actually better than I had expected. Just check out the infectious hooks on "Wings Of A Dove" or "Grace". The production is high quality and gives it a rich sound. At times some of the songs have a progressive touch which might alienate a few listeners but shouldn't be much of a problem as there is no "noodling" and the songs are all under 5 minutes (with one exception). Overall this is a welcomed addition to any Christian metal fans collection. The lyrics are straight forward for Jesus and each song has a scripture verse listed on the end of it in the lyrics sheet.

I heard the Grace track on thier myspace site and was really impressed. Very catchy and melodic, but then I listened to one of the other tracks and it seem very proggy (not a style I get into easily). I was afraid that the better part of the album was mostly progressive and that the commercial appeal to the "Grace" song was just kind of a a "one off" attempt at getting radio airplay.

To be honest the album is about half and half. You would probably like about half the songs as they are very catchy. The other half are more progressive.

Thanks that actually helps quite a bit.