Fireflight
For Those Who Wait (Provident Label Group)
Reviewed by Robert Ham

Sometimes the best art is inspired by the worst circumstances. Just as she was gearing up to record a new album, Fireflight’s vocalist Dawn Michele learned that her brother was diagnosed with brain cancer. Michele poured her fears, frustrations and hopes into this new album. And with the rest of the band following suit, Fireflight has put together a collection of songs swimming with emotion, raw energy and an intensity that was only hinted at on previous efforts. 

Michele’s internal struggles are placed at the center of some of the album’s most urgent tracks. Buoyed by furious guitar playing on the track “Desperate”, she uses her brassy vocals to echo the concerns of every avowed Christian going through a trying time (“I know you hear me/won’t you give me a sign/I’m standing on a ledge/waving my hands/do you see me?”). By the time we get to “Overcome”, Michele has found strength in adversity, using it to bolster her faith.

What this disc needs is more of that spirit and less of cloying tracks like “Name”, weeping sentiments that bring the momentum that Fireflight has built up to a grinding halt. Some of these quieter moments work better than others (the album closing “Recovery Begins” is a particularly moving paean to “the darkness turn[ing] to light”), but when the band is so good at intense, slick rock, why would you want to hear anything else?