Dark Gethsemane Flooded with Light
About a month ago I had the pleasure of reviewing Lent to Maundy Thursday, an album by local band Page CXVI. As part of their Church Calendar project, that album set the Lenten season to music. It's a lush, reflective album that has helped Lent be a rich and thoughtful time for me.
I deeply enjoy albums that are more than a sum of their songs: albums that tell stories and fit together to form a vibrant and beautiful picture as a whole. As you listen to Good Friday to Easter, you notice that there is a story being told here. There is an intentional song order that carries us along from the dark, fearful, horrific tones of Good Friday to the uncertainty and pensiveness of Black Saturday to the wonder and amazement of Easter morning when the stone was rolled away.
They capture the emotion of each step carefully and masterfully; they linger and mourn in the dark night of betrayal with Jesus in "Go to Dark Gethsemane" (one of my favorite tracks), not rushing to get to Easter too quickly. "Three" is a beautiful and brief moment where time hangs on a thread and Jesus has not yet risen as the Christ, but when "Roll Away the Stone" comes, sounds of joy and victory burst forth. It's a song that deserves to be turned up and enjoyed with your eyes closed.
I'll leave the rest of the album for you to discover and savor, but I highly commend it all. Listen to it straight through in one sitting without doing anything else; just be present and rejoice along with Page CXVI that Christ is risen and has defeated death!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this album for the purposes of this review.