Originally posted on September 11, 2021 on Instagram
Album Recommendation: ‘Eternity’ by Whom I Serve
Last week @aaron_offbeatdrummer contacted me asking if I’d be willing to give his new band’s debut album ‘Eternity’ a listen and review it. I get a couple of these a week and don’t always have time to go over them. (My apologies if you’ve contacted me and I haven’t responded. I’ve been stretched rather thin lately.) However, I was already familiar with Aaron’s other band, mothaltar, and so I figured I’d give this one a try. This was also the first time I’ve ever gotten access to an album before its release date, so that was cool!
Whom I Serve is a Christian hard rock band and is the project of duo Jared Esposito on vocals and guitars and Aaron Ashcroft on drums. The album was done entirely independently as well. The first thing that stuck out to me was the drum mix. The drums sound raw and real, something I very much appreciate when most of the music world uses programmed beats nowadays. Also, Aaron is a fantastic drummer and matches Jared’s straightforward guitar grooves perfectly. (If you haven’t checked out some of Aaron’s covers on Instagram or listened to his more intricate playing in mothaltar, I would definitely recommend it.)
My favorite guitar parts on ‘Eternity’ have got to be the crunchy opener on the track “Atoned” and the staccato lead in “Fortress of Hope” which gave me some AC/DC or Guns N’ Roses vibes. What also surprised me were the amount of features on this record. Chris Johnson of Hard Look features on “Atoned;” Ben S Dixon joins in on “Without Sin;” and Jonathan Franklin of mothaltar screams his way through “Fortress of Hope.”
Lyrically, ‘Eternity’ is pretty much a straight praise album. Many of the lyrical themes deal with biblical concepts of redemption, hope, and salvation. To be honest, I found their forward declarations of faith to be rather refreshing.
In all, Whom I Serve has released a solid debut album that shows lots of promise and I’m looking forward to hearing more from them.
Robby Reviews 