Album Review

I‘d heard and read a fair bit about Duvall prior to receiving this album; how they were ex-Smoking Popes (a well-known band in the mid- to late-90s), how vocalist Josh Caterer became a Christian, and the somewhat unique rags-to-riches, back-to-rags story, so to speak. Fascinating, yes, but it pales compared to the risk (yeah, I said risk) Mike Park and his Asian Man Records label took releasing Volume & Density. Duvall‘s press sheet says the band are "trying to break into the Christian music market", of all things; how rad is that? Credit Park and Co. with being behind the band, supporting a market they‘ve never been involved with before.

The weird thing is that this album, in the current musical climate, doesn‘t really have a niche. It‘s twelve songs of really, really good rock and roll, but, um, does that sell in the Christian scene nowadays? Everything in that ‘subculture‘, it seems on cursory inspection, has been compartmentalized into ‘metal‘ or ‘R&B‘ or ‘high-energy praise and worship‘; old-fashioned distorted rock chunk ceased to exist in that sphere a few years back, with some notable exceptions, of course.

Forget all that. I‘ve never heard Smoking Popes, but the first two songs on this record, ‘All In Your Head‘ and ‘Way Deep Inside‘, hooked me like a flounder on Caterer‘s songwriting and spoke volumes to my soul - all in the space of five or so minutes. Caterer‘s sheer honesty and naked humility leaps out of the maxed-out rock ruckus, acknowledging and praising his God in song - in a way that‘s obviously been done before, but that in no way diminishes the quality: this stuff is tops. Other highlights include ‘Between The Lines‘, a wizened look back at Smoking Popes‘ (and their ilk) time in the limelight, and ‘Racine‘, a wistful song with a chord progression in the chorus that‘s so simple and effective it‘s to die for.

Throughout, Duvall‘s maintain a balance between speedy anthems (‘Way Deep Inside‘) and slower but no less moving songs (‘Gimme Some Light‘), and in the end what we‘ve got here is one of the best, most meaningful rock records of the last year. You need to hear this.