“I wash my walls with tears of hope,” singer Christian intimates on Blindside’s second album. He really doesn’t cry that much, even if album-opener “Eye of the Storm” does suggest that About a Burning Fire has 12 courses of screamo in store. Like the band’s background — Swedish Christians signed to 3 Points Records, P.O.D.’s Elektra imprint, for an album that features a guest appearance by Great Pumpkin Billy Corgan — it obscures the surprisingly nuanced moments that follow.
The jazzy “Roads” turns an angry mood somber with a creeping acoustic guitar hook and downbeat trumpet solo, as muted cello and violin contours intertwine. A melodic world-music wail winds through “Shekina,” while “Where the Sun Never Dies” collapses abruptly, exposing a fading dance beat. Even the most overt testimonials are buried in nondenominational Oprah-isms — “We’ve been trying too long/To cover up His fingerprints/From a distant past . . . My spirit is freezing like ice in this heat.” Forget their benefactors from Southtown; when Blindside gives pause to its wall o’ guitar, the Swedes sound more like mercurial Twilight Singers.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2004.