John 3:16 – Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (2011)

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Hailing from Switzerland, today we have the experimental one-man music making machine John 3:16. Fusing ambient sounds with some electronic/drone sections and a dosage of Post-Rock, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is one of those EP’s that will captivate you from start to finish with its hypnotic sound and perfectly crafted songs.

The intro track “Earthly Father” wills enshroud you with mystery due to the drone elements an hints of ethereal atmospheric influences, but this track does not really give away anything that is to come. In “In the Name of the Lord”, the music continues to be dark with its droning elements and it suddenly moves into the Post-Rock area with some excellent guitar work. The drums get a bit annoying in the background, but I guess they are used to contrast for the first 2 minutes of so. Then this piece turns completely ethereal with some nice atmospheric elements and very dreamy guitars. This song reminded us a bit to God Is An Astronaut and similar bands due to the dark atmosphere around it.

The magical aural trip continues with “Obey God”, a very catchy track that goes a bit into the ambient/pop side of things but without any vocals to ruin it, this track is actually pretty intense and well crafted. “Redemption” offers more atmospheric goodies to nicely keep the album flowing, but maybe the band’s sound is getting a bit too familiar (read: repetitive).

Closing with the hypnotic “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, John 3:16 nicely summarizes everything presented in this EP in just one track. We have a powerful atmosphere, droning drums, and post-rockish guitars all in one place. The song nicely builds up and culminates around the middle, just to slowly die off and make you want to hit the play button again.

Overall, John 3:16 is a pretty solid one-man effort that delivers very well crafted tracks with haunting atmospheres. The combination of genres is seamless and makes each track work very well. If you are looking for some good atmospheric/post-rockish music, look no further and get “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”.

Band: John 3:16 Album: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Label: Alrealon Musique

Release: 2011

Oficial Site myspace
Genre: Ambient/Drone/Post-Rock

Country: France / Switzerland

Rating: 84/100
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