Fearful Symmetry (album)


Fearful Symmetry is the seventh studio album by Christian alternative rock band Daniel Amos, issued on Frontline Records in 1986. It is the fourth and final album in their ¡Alarma! Chronicles album cycle and the first of three albums the band issued under the shortened moniker DA.

Background

Fearful Symmetry is a lush, synthesizer driven pop album, lyrically wrapped in puzzles that the listener has to decipher. Nearly every song on Fearful Symmetry in some way deals with pain or darkness - from the William Blake-inspired "Sleep Silent Child", a song about death, to "Strong Points, Weak Points", a song about doubt. The album title comes from a line in The Tyger by William Blake. The album ends on an upbeat note however, with the touching ballad, "Beautiful One".
Fearful Symmetry was the final chapter of a four-part series of albums by DA entitled The ¡Alarma! Chronicles, which also included the albums ¡Alarma!, Doppelgänger, and Vox Humana. The band raised eyebrows on the tour that followed each release, by presenting a full multimedia event complete with video screens synchronized to the music, something that was unusual in the early 1980s for any band. This album, along with the other three albums from the Alarma! Chronicles, was re-released as part of the Alarma! Chronicles Book set in 2000. The Book Set included three CDs, over 200 pages of lyrics, photos, liner notes, essays, interviews and other information in a hardcover book.
As with Vox Humana, keyboardist Rob Watson was unavailable for the photo session for this album. Thus the album's group photo only shows four of the five band members.

Track listing

Side one
  1. "A Sigh for You"
  2. "The Pool"
  3. "Sleep, Silent Child"
  4. "Neverland Ballroom"
  5. "Strong Points, Weak Points"
Side two
  1. "Instruction Through Film"
  2. "When Moonlight Sleeps "
  3. "Sudden Heaven"
  4. "Shadow Catcher"
  5. "Beautiful One"

    Personnel

Additional musicians
Production