Christian Rock. The two words together bring to mind the sweet, loving melodies of a nice, mellow contemporary artist, or the butt-rock images of Stryper from the 1980s. Hailing from the Sidney, Ohio, Behold The Kingdom accomplish the task of smashing both stereotypes of the aforementioned genre with The Eyes of the Wicked Will Fail. And these guys have never even seen a can of AquaNet. The Eyes of the Wicked Will Fail is the first release from Behold The Kingdom whose members were born (again) in 2009. The executive producer is Fort Wayne’s Shawn Browning (Wretched of Grave Robber). The album was engineered by the team of Nathan Hook and Adam Jordan, who also took on the mixing duties, and mastered by the amazing Tim Bushong at T. Bush Recordings. 

The disc begins innocently enough with the spoken word of the Lord’s Prayer and segues into the opening track titled We Are Zion (Prayer of the Messiah). This is where things get brutal. From here on out, Behold The Kingdom become the religious incarnate of Lamb Of God with blistering double-bass, guitar and vocals. In my opinion, they are heavier than Lamb Of God. The CD doesn’t really take on a mellow or melodic tone at all, though this is something I’m certain they are more than capable of and, I believe, would greatly benefit the band. I would love to hear more groove-oriented parts in their songs.

The Eyes of the Wicked Will Fail is a machine of madness from start to finish. The band describes itself as Christian/gospel/metal/deathcore. You’ll get no argument from me. 

Behold The Kingdom are an extremely talented band and do have a message, but because of the vocal style it’s almost impossible to understand what that message is. It would benefit them to include a lyrics insert in their next release. Overall, The Eyes of the Wicked Will Fail is a beast of a CD and not for the light-hearted metal tourist or Stryper fan. (Michael “Myke D” Deaton)