Album: Memento Mori

Artist: Flyleaf

Genre: Alternative Rock / Metal / Christian Rock

Before getting into the meat of the review I think it prudent to expalin something about Flyleaf and thus about myself to shed a better light perhaps on what I am going to say. All of the members of the band Flyleaf are Christian and very .....how do I say this devoute Christians as they have admitted. As they said in one interview they do not consider themselves a Christian band nor do they consider the music that they write specificly Christian in nature. However they do state that since their faith is a big part of their life and who they are that of course it will come out in their music. Now this thing about me.....I was raised Roman Catholic (a branch of Christianity for those that do not know) but sometime during my High School years I stopped practicing my faith. Well why? Its hard to exactly say why, Im sure laziness has some part in it but it is not all. I became disillusioned with Christianity as a whole, from the "backwards" traditions such as priests cannot marry, to women cannot be priests, just to name a few to the outward corruption of the faith as well, like the priests that abused children and their Bishops covered up the crimes by simply moving the priests to new locations, as a result in some cases causing the entire thing to be repeated over again on new children. Then there is the pride that a majority of Christians have in their faith. That above all is what really pisses me off. Im not talking about people who are happy to be Christians but people who try to convert others to "save" them stating that Jesus is the true salvation and that all who dont embrace him are doomed to burn in hell. Im so sick of this, mostly because they are soo far far far off base that I think they need to be committed. No, my belief is that while Jesus was the "son" of God he is not the only version. Every religion, it doesnt matter which one, is just a different version of the same truth, the truth being God. Those that say that you are either with us or against us are the ones that will burn in hell in the end in my mind.

Whew........with that said now perhaps you will have some prespective on me.

The first thing I noticed about this album is the difference in terms of the lead singer's voice when compared to the first album. In the first album while the lead singer was somewhere around 26 years old, her voice seemed some what child-ish. Not to say that she sounded like a child be her voice gave a sense of innoncence. Im Memento Mori this is no more. THe lead singer's voice has clearly matured and for the better. While in the first album the other members of the band commonly backed her up with vocals, in Memento Mori her voice is powerful and needs no backup at all. The other differnce in relation to her voice is that there is not as much "screaming." While you will hear some for background vocal, there is nothing like that in I'm So Sick.

Now as for the songs themselves....and here is why I brought up Christianity in the start of this review. Nearly all of the songs clearly reflect their faith in one form or another. Im some cases the somgs directly reference it and in others they simply use it to create a backdrop for the song. In the album expect to hear references to "Body of Christ", "tore out his heart to show he loved me", and "rached for me with open arms" all of which are referencing Jesus of course. Missing also touches on the Virgin Mary as well as the fictional Bible character of Eve. DO NOT be disillusioned by this. Trust me if I read what I had just wrote I would not have bought this album. These things are done in such a way that you do not at all mind the references to their faith. In fact it makes the songs and lyrics that much more powerful and "true." You can feel the emotion in every song. The album overall is generally about the dead and dying looking for salvation in various forms, wheter it be through the love of someone else or through God/Jesus/their faith. This really isnt that odd though because after you listen to Memento Mori if you go back and listen to the Flyleaf album you can see overtones from their faith in it as well. The "final" song on the album also flirts with "The End" if you know what I mean and I consider it the best song on the album...but I wont ruin it for you.

As for the music videos, well like the music, you need to read between the lines of both the lyrics and visuals. Again is more straight forward than Beautiful Bride. Beautiful Bride is....well.....a little bit on the weird side. I wouldnt view it unde the influence of anything, not that any of you do anything like that, LOL.

Again: [link]

Beautiful Bride: [link]

Rating: 5.0/5.0

Overall this is how a band is suppose to grow and change. Dare I say that Flyleaf is the "new Evanescence" and Memento Mori is the little sister of My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade....if only in album visuals.