The Hymn of a Broken Man
Encyclopedia
The Hymn of a Broken Man received generally positive reviews, scoring a 69 out of 100 ("generally favorable reviews") on Metacritic
based on seven reviews. Allmusic reviewer Phil Freeman commented that "Anyone who thought Times of Grace was going to represent some radical departure is bound to be disappointed. Anybody who comes to it expecting melodic metal with hardcore crunch, occasional bits of post-rock guitar, and angsty yet ultimately life-affirming lyrics, on the other hand, will be pleased." Rick Florino of Artistdirect
gave the album a perfect score of five out of five, commenting that "The Hymn of a Broken Man functions as a heavy, heartfelt journey through pain," and that "Times Of Grace are the future. Let another new age begin."
However, staff reviewer Jared Ponton of Sputnikmusic
scored the album two out of five ("poor"), describing it as a "broken man with broken songwriting writes broken album." Ponton criticized the flow of the album, writing that "the thing that really prevents The Hymn of a Broken Man from being great, in any sense of the word, is its problems with dynamic, tempo, and melody usage, vocal or instrumental. The flow of Times of Grace’s debut is so jagged and stop-start, the chore of listening to it makes the gems that appear later on in the tracklisting, like the purely acoustic and slowed-down 'The Forgotten One', easily the strongest and most enjoyable track of the bunch, almost not worth the effort of discovering," which is mainly because "the vocal melodies here aren’t strong enough on their own, let alone when matched up with untraditional guitar riffs that are meant to supplement their effect in the music."
Times of Grace
Additional personnel
Production
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
based on seven reviews. Allmusic reviewer Phil Freeman commented that "Anyone who thought Times of Grace was going to represent some radical departure is bound to be disappointed. Anybody who comes to it expecting melodic metal with hardcore crunch, occasional bits of post-rock guitar, and angsty yet ultimately life-affirming lyrics, on the other hand, will be pleased." Rick Florino of Artistdirect
ARTISTdirect
Founded in 1994, Artistdirect, Inc. is an online digital media entertainment company. It owns several websites including Artistdirect.com, UBL.com and the Artistdirect Network...
gave the album a perfect score of five out of five, commenting that "The Hymn of a Broken Man functions as a heavy, heartfelt journey through pain," and that "Times Of Grace are the future. Let another new age begin."
However, staff reviewer Jared Ponton of Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic
Sputnikmusic, or simply Sputnik, is a music website offering music criticism and music news alongside features commonly associated with wiki-style websites...
scored the album two out of five ("poor"), describing it as a "broken man with broken songwriting writes broken album." Ponton criticized the flow of the album, writing that "the thing that really prevents The Hymn of a Broken Man from being great, in any sense of the word, is its problems with dynamic, tempo, and melody usage, vocal or instrumental. The flow of Times of Grace’s debut is so jagged and stop-start, the chore of listening to it makes the gems that appear later on in the tracklisting, like the purely acoustic and slowed-down 'The Forgotten One', easily the strongest and most enjoyable track of the bunch, almost not worth the effort of discovering," which is mainly because "the vocal melodies here aren’t strong enough on their own, let alone when matched up with untraditional guitar riffs that are meant to supplement their effect in the music."
Track listing
Charts
| Chart (2011) | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| German Newcomer Chart | 7 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
44 |
Personnel
The album's credits and personnel can be obtained from Allmusic.Times of Grace
- Adam DutkiewiczAdam DutkiewiczAdam Jonathan Dutkiewicz is an American musician, recording engineer and music producer, best known as a guitarist and backup vocalist from Massachusetts metalcore band Killswitch Engage.-Biography:...
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Jesse LeachJesse LeachJesse David Leach is an American musician from Providence, Rhode Island, and is best known as being the former lead vocalist of Killswitch Engage and later for being the vocalist for the blues rock band Seemless...
– vocals
Additional personnel
- Rebekah Dutkiewicz - backing vocals
Production
- Adam Dutkiewicz - productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may... - Jim Fogarty - engineering
- Ted JensenTed JensenTed Jensen is an American recording engineer. Jensen is the chief mastering engineer at Sterling Sound. He started his career as a mastering engineer in 1976 and is currently the most active Mastering Engineer in the industry...
- masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced... - Monte ConnerMonte ConnerMonte Conner is a producer and A&R person for Roadrunner Records. He has worked with numerous bands including, Slipknot, Trivium and King Diamond.- Discography :#Trivium - The Crusade#Stone Sour - Come WhatMay#Jerry Cantrell - Degradation Trip...
- A&R - Jesse Leach – art design
- Dan Mandell - art design, photography
- Gail Marowitz - art design