We Cast Out the Devil by Christian Image (Review)
First things first: the sound quality of We Cast Out the Devil is precisely what you’d expect from a demo recorded in 1990: it’s rough, unpolished, and at times, nigh-unlistenable. Some songs start or cut off unexpectedly, the mix is muddy, and if tape hiss bugs you, steer clear. And yet, there’s nevertheless something fascinating about the Belgian trio’s music, raw as it may be.
Much of that is due to the psychedelic sounds that fill the album’s twelve songs, thanks to Laszlo H’s fiery guitars, and even moreso, Dorothe V’s “metalized” violin — sounds that contain more ambition then you might expect from a group of goth punks. On tracks like “Jesus Christ,” “Stand Up,” “World Without the Holy Spirit,” and the title track, the band’s sonics swirl and tendril around the user with the icy menace that can make goth music so bracing. At times, Laszlo H’s razor-sharp riffs remind me of Lycia; at other times, they evoke a punkier Cocteau Twins.
Lyrically, the band is completely transparent about their Christian beliefs. There’s no poetic ambiguity in songs like “Stand Up,” which implores people to follow Jesus (“He can forgive your sins/He can break your night/He’s the only one who can give you everlasting life”) or “Rapture,” which rants against sexual immorality before ending with a plea for Jesus’ return. One of the album’s conceptual highlights is “Lonely Heart,” which imagines God’s sadness over man’s sinfulness (“Do you know the almighty God is a being with lonely heart?/Created men to be His friend but we choose to ignore Him”).
Aside from this barebones fan site — which includes some lyrics and scans of the band’s features in a zine called Christian Power — and the odd review, there’s precious little about Christian Image online. And so the band ultimately remains a curio. For all its roughness, We Cast Out the Devil is a fascinating snapshot from a realm of Christian music that most people probably never even knew existed. And as with The Children of Power, it’s hard to not wonder what might’ve been had Christian Image kept recording, preferably with a decent recording studio and budget.