Luna Halo [D1 Music]

If I close my eyes I can remember the adrenaline rush of one of the best concerts of my life: Exit 97. End of the year at Liberty University, with bands Third Day and Reality Check headlining. I rushed to the stage as Reality Check went on, and spent the last few hours of 1997 in music ecstasy.

Four years later I was sitting in my dorm room and my eye caught the Reality Check poster I had bought at the concert, and wondered just what had happened to the band. I hopped online and found that, unfortunately, that they had disbanded not too long after that wonderful concert. But Nathan Barlowe, the lead singer, was working on a new project, Luna Halo. So out to the store I went, and soon got my hands on their album, Shimmer.

Luna Halo wasn’t at all what I had expected. To be honest, I was waiting for Reality Check, part 2. No reggae rock rap here. Instead, I was greeted with what I can only describe as a true new rock sound.

Shimmer opens with a futuristic feel by sampling actual Russian cosmonaut transmissions in the song, “Alien”. The album carries a fairly medium-weight rock sound throughout, with a few softer, more reflective songs like “Forgiveness” and “Complacent”. The lyrics are very insightful, and Nathan’s voice had a way of instilling the message they carry. The album also contains power-driven melodies from the confessional of “Superman” to the haunting bassline of “Beautiful”.

By shear luck I noticed a small green flyer on campus one day and went in for a closer look. Lo and behold, Luna Halo would be playing at the university later that month! So I got myself down to the ticket office and secured myself a place. That night, a small university and local crowd formed as Luna Halo took the stage. For the next hour, Luna Halo graced us with a fantastic set, and even obliged us, small crowd that we were, with an encore. But the best was yet to come. Luna Halo makes it a policy to come out into the crowd after every show to talk to the fans. So I grabbed one of those inconspicuous green flyers and made my way around to each member of the band. They were all so kind, and really took the time to talk to each fan...not just a ‘hi’ and a signature. I particularly enjoyed talking to Nathan, especially when I mentioned being a previous fan of Reality Check back in my middle school days. (I hope I didn’t make him feel too old!) All considered, Luna Halo provides a fabulous concert performance, and I am a huge supporter of any artist that will take the time to really talk to the fans the way Luna Halo does.

For more about the band, check out www.lunahalo.com. The website is constructed only in Flash format, so if you have a slow connection, it might take a bit to load. The site includes the usual discography, tour dates, online shop, etc., but there is also a friendly fan forum where the guys will come in and post and answer questions fairly often, as well as a tour journal where the guys will post the latest events. The site also links to several nicely-done fan sites where more information can be found.

Suggested listening:

“Alien” (Shimmer)
“Forgiveness” (Shimmer)
“Complacent” (Shimmer)
“Beautiful” (Shimmer)
(The band has released two smaller EP's independently since they left their lable, but they are only available through their website.)

(And who says Christian rap rock is done? If you’d like to check out some of the old Reality Check stuff, even now I would still highly recommend the album if you can find it. You can often catch me cruising home to their self-titled album on a warm afternoon. I’d especially recommend songs such as “Masquerade”, “Plastic”, and “Take Me Away”.)