It’s not a common thing that I write about music here, but today something extraordinary happened.
I’m a fan of the famous 2 Tm 2,3 band. There are quite a few groups playing Christian music here in Poland, but this one is the Polish Christian music band. They started playing together almost twenty years ago, and encompass a solid range of musical styles, most prominently hard rock/metal, reggae and folk, with words (mostly) coming from the Holy Bible.
After the heavier rock 888 (the name comes from the name of Jesus, counted according to ancient Hebrew Gematria rules) disk in 2006 (actually, their fifth album, and a very good one) and a much lighter (musically) Dementi two years later (an even better one, imho), the band recorded one live album in the meantime, but this one did not have any new material. Then a shock came: Piotr Żyżelewicz, their drummer, died after a stroke in 2011. No wonder they had a long hiatus.
Now they’re back. Their new album, Źródło (The Source) is out today, and wow! It’s really good. (I’m not yet sure whether I like it more than Dementi or their older records, but – while one or two pieces are “meh” – more than a half are great, so the proportion is very, very good. The problem is, Dementi put the bar rather high…) If you’re into this style of music, I can highly recommend it, even if you’re not Catholic. The piece which promoted the album, Eli Eli, is available for listening on the interwebs. The lyrics are in Polish and Hebrew, but they are basically fragments of Psalm 22 (the one Jesus famously quoted on His cross).
What else can I say. Go listen, it’s powerful music.
(Note to orthodox Jews: the lyrics of some 2 Tm 2,3’s songs – not this one, mind you – contain the Name of the Lord. While in Catholicism we have the highest respect for His name – as St. Paul put it, and for this God raised Him high, and gave Him the name which is above all other names; so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus (Philippians 2:9-10) – we do not consider it unpronounceable.)