If you’re looking for a Destroy Nate Allen lighthearted fun piece, this isn’t it.

Hide No Truth
Artist: Good Saint Nathanael
Label - Indie

Full disclosure: I have had an extremely difficult time composing a review of this album. If you’re looking for a Destroy Nate Allen lighthearted fun piece, this isn’t it.

Good Saint Nathanael’s Hide No Truth reveals exactly what the title says. This is a man’s stark honesty about his long dark night of the soul. Think of Job, of David’s Psalms, of Ecclesiastes, of Jacob’s wrestling match with an angel, and you begin to get the idea.

From “Everything’s Been Lost”:

“And Everything that’s lost will one day be found
Everything that’s living composted, turned around
Giving birth to flowers, melody and brand new song
Clean energy, fresh atmosphere, like ripples on a pond”

The cry for renewal is poignant, and just a bit fearful. Who among us has not felt this way at some point? As I listen, I pray the album isn’t autobiographical, and yet I know it is also like looking into a fun house mirror. The same truth is not hidden, and neither is the warped sense of self, while struggling with God.

“Concrete” depicts what we all feel during the dark hours:

“There was no divine intervention
No crowd of angels defending
There was no answer, No communication
Know time does not heal everything, No time does not heal everything.”

I could quote every song here...Hide No Truth is a raw, brutally honest of a man lost in his own mind, desperately seeking his way back to God. At its most plaintive, Allen’s vocals evoke Death Cab For Cutie .

The songs are stark, and they are allowed to breathe, while seeming to pant for air. The spaces make you confront parts of yourself you’d rather leave alone but are forced to face. This is a brilliant set of songs, a tour de force of inner turmoil and restoration.

Brian A. Smith