Sort of About Writing: Cry of the Afflicted

There was a band that broke up not too long ago called Cry of the Afflicted. They came out with an album right when their style of music was starting to get overplayed, but I liked some of their material regardless and the lyrics to one of their songs I found interesting.

I’m a fan of songs that express religious sentiment without the stock turns of phrase or vocabulary. Worship bands are notorious to some for not being creative with their lyrics — or their music for that matter (when someone like David Crowder is considered cutting edge in your genre you know you’re dealing with some non-risky behavior types). It’s partially intuitive that a band that plays unorthodox “Christian” music might have unorthodox lyrics. “Unorthodox” here meaning “using any words or phrases not found in the Psalms”. Not a far-reaching goal line to cross but you have to consider the narrow breadth of vision of many Christian artists.

It can come off as mean-spirited criticizing really overtly-themed Christian artists because they’re spreading the word, man. Calling out bad lyrics that are based on scripture isn’t spreading the love, man. You’re like crucifying Jesus all over again, man. I’m strawmanning a bit here — I think — but there’s an unspoken rule that it’s malformed etiquette to put red marks all over a lyric sheet that has obvious verse references and the proper number of God’s-name-invoking-per-minute ratio. I imagine some don’t even bother receiving constructive criticism because they can just fall back on the “ministry” excuse for a barely passable product.

But anyways, these are the lyrics to “A Scar Filled Sky” and a video of the song. The lyrics admittedly rely on a few cliches scattered among the marvelous this-is-my-personal-apocalypse imagery. Lyrics and music copyright I don’t care.

Eruptions of fire and stone all around
They fill the air and shake the ground
And it’s proving impermanence

the tortured landscape heaves
Nothing will be left alive

Bury my remains
under ashes falling on my grave
Make me whole again
give me the sight to see Your ends
Bury my remains, cover up this body in decay
Make me whole again
paint me on a brand new canvas

Not far from here, a place prepared
Can’t find my way, send up a flare
Open the sky
show me the way through twilight

Even now I see a spark in the distance
A flicker of hope for peace and silence
This span so hostile, won’t last forever
This path through struggle will make me stronger