Thousand Foot Krutch:Welcome To The Masquerade

Everyone’s favorite Canadians are back with 14 tracks of rawkin’ goodness! Thousand Foot Krutch has made a name for themselves with their high-energy live shows, and their versatile muscial style. Welcome To The Masquerade definitely takes TFK to a higher level as Trevor McNevan and his musical companions continue to stretch themselves musically and professionally. After seeing songs like Move, Rawkfist, and Phenomenon used in everything from MLB games, to ESPN Sportscenter, to video games, the band recieved a great honor this year, being one of only three bands to win Taco Bell’s Feed The Beat contest. As part of the contest, they released the song Bring Me To Life as a free download at www.welcometothemasquerade.com. At first listen, you know that this is the Thousand Foot Krutch that fans have come to know and love, with their powerful guitars, chest pounding drums, and soul piercing lyrics. Our death and spiritual rebirth and revitalization is displayed through the lyrics “Bring Me To Life, Breathe Air Into Me. It’s Taken My Whole Life To Realize All The Things I’ve Never Seen.”

The overall theme of Welcome to the Masquerade is that 1)we are not perfect and 2)we all have something to hide. That is why the imagery of the “masquerade” is so brilliant, because we all hide behind our “masks”. Whether it be in E for Extinction how camoflauge ourselves, or Scream(my personal favorite track on the album) and the mask that I don’t want to wear anymore. Also included on WTTM is the rock anthem Fire It Up. When you listen to this song, you will understand the reason for the title of the song. Its hard to listen to this song and not feel “fired up” to “let your light shine”. The whole song is encouragement to know who the opposition is, and to know who to lean on so that we can stand strong. Forward Motion is about pushing our differences aside and working together to reach our common goal, which is reaching people for Christ. Look Away is a slower track that deals with feelings of hopelessness and the reality of suicide. The lyrics cry to Take all these cuts, and make them shine, and all this pain I’ve held inside, so I can find my way home again. Finally, Smack Down, well, what can you say about this song that hasn’t already been said about this song? It just flat out rawks, and I won’t be surprised to hear song this echoing through sports arenas and wrestling rings for years to come.

TFK has always pushed the limits musically and lyrically, sometimes delving into topics that most bands won’t even approach. Welcome to the Masquerade is no different, and is an album that will surely gain them much more noteriety in not only the christian music world, but the secular realm as well. In fact, Welcome To The Masquerade is not only TFK’s best album yet, it has the potential to be the best album of 2009. Be sure to purchase your tickets for “the ball”, get your tux or dress and mask ready, and hit the lights, because the Masquerade has begun.

p.s.- My daughters will not stop walking around singing “Get Ready For The Smack Down!”. I guess thats not a bad thing!