One of my greatest pleasures as both a reviewer and a music fan in general is introducing people to bands that they may have failed to take notice of before; with that in mind, I bring you a review of Theocracy’s Mirror of Souls. Unfortunately missing review in 2008 by MR.com (Though all the better for me), MoS is nothing less than a masterpiece of the power metal genre; with its towering melodies, stunning musicianship, fantastic vocals, and a friggin’ colossal title track, Theocracy set its competition ablaze with holy fire and created what is not only one of the best power metal albums of the 00’s, but the best Christian music album I have EVER heard.

Now personally, when I think of Christian power metal, I think of bands that are heavy on pretty melodies yet are lacking any sort of heaviness or aggression. The case is not so here. Though the melodies and choruses carry some of the most beautiful and grandiose moments in all of power metal, the rhythm guitar has a very nice, loud crunch to it, and the drums (especially the snare) are always very crisp and punchy. And Theocracy uses this heavy sound to their advantage; Laying the Demon to Rest almost leans more toward a speedy, galloping thrash track while simultaneously taking rests to showcase a slower, wonderful chorus that would put most Christian hymns to shame. Also, the massive Mirror of Souls is chock full of riffs that are just plain heavy, as is needed for some portions of the song’s story… but more on that later.

But fans of the highly melodic styles of bands like Stratovarius and Gamma Ray will find enough songs that follow in the particular vein that they prefer to warrant a listen, as well. A Tower of Ashes, On Eagles Wings, and Absolution Day all follow a more traditional, melodic path. Though these kinds of songs have all been done before, the way Theocracy writes and executes them is superb, and some of the melodies are truly unconventional. The chorus of Absolution Day, for example, has a rather poppy quality to it, though the choirs in the background combined with Matt Smiths amazing voice make for a melody that’s spine chilling and entirely uplifting at the same time.

There’s also a very nice “Ballad” here, Bethlehem, that I believe deserves to be brought into the mainstream as a Christmas classic to challenge Silent Night and the like. Before Mirror of Souls' culminating title track arrives, two more songs are presented to us, The Writing in the Sand and Martyr. The former is a slower paced track that’s still plenty heavy and has some really neat vocal melodies; the latter is more of a traditional heavy metal song with progressive riffing that is instantly memorable. There’s even some acoustic, latin riffing towards the end that somehow doesn’t come across as silly. MoS is an album that grabs you and refuses to let go; not only because of the impeccable music, but also because of the lyrics. Though this has been mentioned in MR’s review of Theocracy’s debut, the lyrics are in no way preachy or designed to make you feel inferior because you don’t share the band’s beliefs. Rather, the songs tell stories about overcoming the impossible odds the world faces you with through the help of God. Even if you aren’t a Christian, these words are wholly inspiring and make you hope and look forward to a better world and a better future.

And now we come to Mirror of Souls’s perfect, stunning title track which deserves an entire review, let alone just a paragraph about it. This twenty two minute, twenty six second epic represents every aspect of Theocracy’s sound, introduces more progressive elements than the band has ever used, and also tells a story that perfectly tells the message Theocracy wants you to receive. It tells the story of a man’s dream where he takes a journey through a hall of mirrors, a dark, rainy landscape, and arrives at one final mirror where his true soul to revealed to him in the glass. It’s a really clever set-up; the hall of mirrors at the beginning represents the eyes of the man’s peers and how each of them view him by his behavior around him. The dreadful, seemingly endless plain of darkness is stands for a journey through life that’s lived without God. And the mirror at the end, where the man discovers a horrible, deformed figure in the reflection, is how God sees the man when his life is infected with sin. The story is far more emotional and skillfully told than I make it out to be here, but the music itself is simply perfect for the tale. The music is constantly swelling between soft and aggressive, triumphant and horrible, and some of the shifts are so seamless that you may not even realize what happened at first. I’ll leave the major details of this masterpiece for the listener to discover; I simply can’t justify just how seamless and powerful Mirror of Souls is.

And really, I feel a bit ashamed because I know that I’m not nearly doing this album justice. But no matter what your beliefs may be, if you’re a fan of any kind of power metal, then you need to find some way to get a hold of this and listen to what is easily my favorite PM album of 2008. I simply can’t recommend this masterpiece enough.