  After Death I finally gave Waterdeep a shot with their release Sink or Swim . I really enjoyed the set. The tracks "18 Bullet Holes" and the intriguing"And" were instant favorites. The band has that sort of folksy sound that I dig. They remind me a lot of 40 Acres -era Caedmon's Call,except lyrically they aren't calvinist at all. In fact. I made a joke and called them,"anti-caedmon". urlLink Jeremy said he was thinking the same thing. In reality I bet each band has a burgeoning respect for the other. Anyway,onward to the point.
In "18 Bullet Holes" the writer talks about how you don't know when your number's up. He calls death,"beast. " So I got to thinking on this concept. Death is the thing that most of us are most afraid of. As Christians, all anyone can take from us is our physical life. Even then it is only as God allows. So let's think of death as a beast: there's no way around it, there's no escaping,it's bigger than you,you will be overtaken. In life we face death. It's perpetually coming toward each of us(of course,we cannot tell how near it is). When I heard this concept of death as beast I thought the back of the beast must be one of the absolute most beautiful and most glorious sights.
Because the shadow of death looms over even the happiest occassions and experiences nothing we see in this life will be anything near the splendor that is 'after death'. Since hell is eternal death the non-believer will never see the back of the beast. Only those who believe in Jesus Christ will ever see the end of death and the beginning of life. Oh, how I long for that! 
