12 Stones: Young rockers with a potent message

By Steve Beard

Their story is that of rock and roll fantasy. They met in a music store in Mandeville, Louisana. Played together as a band a dozen times and landed a major-league record contract. The next thing you know they score a spot on The Scorpion King soundtrack and tour with Creed. Not bad for a new rock band with three members out of four who are 21 or younger.

They are making believers out of even the most jaundiced of the hard-core heavy metal observers. "As shown throughout their self-titled debut album, these young rockers seem to have developed more than just their own way of approaching their musical craft-they've developed their own sound as well," raves Hit Parader magazine. "Such songs as 'Crash,' 'Broken,' and 'Open Your Eyes' bristle with a distinctive energy and a well-structured power. But underlying it all is a rock-solid sense of songwriting style, and an unmistakable we-know-what-we're-doing instrumental elan."

"We'd rather be positive than negative in our songs," said singer/songwriter Paul McCoy, in an interview with Hit Parader. "But a lot of what I write has to do with the tough times I had while growing up. I think that a lot of people who hear our music can relate to that in their own way. But I don't want to come across as negative and whiney. There's too much of that already. I think there's a way of taking negative energy and stream it back at people in a positive way. Sometimes you just have to accept the notion that you're not always in control of a good part of your life. The weird thing is that once you acknowledge that you have no control, it somehow helps you make it through."

Not exactly the usual sentiments found in the pages of Hit Parader, a magazine that routinely features Marilyn Manson, Slipnot, and Rob Zombie. But when one listens through 12 Stones album there is a thoughtful and probing message of hope and longing found laced through the power cords that betrays the relatively young age of the band.

The band has not been shy about declaring their theological roots, with several members of the band thanking Jesus Christ in the liner notes. Nevertheless, guitarist Eric Weaver told Relevant Magazine: "We're not out there to preach to anyone, and we're just hoping they can get something positive in any form that's necessary." While Protestants may have ditched the confessional booth with the Reformation, rock and rollers have not. The lyrics found on the 12 Stones album read in many places like the Psalms with the lamentations of spiritual struggle and a dependence on God.

Crash: "I feel like I've been falling farther every day / But I know that you're there watching over me / And I feel like I'm drowning, the waves crashing over me / But I know that your love, it will set me free."

Broken: "I know I need you/'Cause deep inside I'm broken/You see the way I live/I know I know your heart is broken when I turn away/ I need to be broken/Take the pain away/I question why you chose to die/When you knew your truth I would deny/You look at me/The tears begin to fall/And all in all faith is blind/But I fail time after time/Daily in my sin I take your life."

The Way I Feel: "Lately I've been wandering/Off the narrow path/You've given me so many things that I've never had/And all in all I know it's you that always pulls me through"

Soulfire: "Every morning as I wake to another day/I bow my head hit my knees and I begin to pray/I search for answers that I wonder if I'll ever find/Running circles in the mazes deep inside my mind"

In an interview with Webrock.net, singer/songwriter Paul McCoy said: "In this industry, and in life in general, whether you hide your faith or show your faith, there are going to be people who disagree with your stand. A lot of people disagree with Creed for not showing their faith as much, I guess, and there are going to people who don't like that fact that we show ours as much as we do. We figure if we are not going to be able to please everybody then we might as well stick with what we know."

The reviewer for Hit Parader seems to agree: "12 Stones were able to develop such a unique and special way of presenting their well-crafted slices of metallic life. With none of the group's four members over the age of 21, the quality of both the songs and the playing displayed on their self-titled debut disc is outstanding. But it is the songs themselves that are the unquestionable stars of these proceedings, providing listeners with a smorgasbord of hard rocking styles and sounds-all of which battle with one another for supremacy."

Steve Beard is the editor of Good News magazine and the creator of thunderstruck.org.