Let's be honest: when I received this CD in the mail, I was all like: "Female-fronted Christian nu-metal band from Temple, Texas? Let's pass." About six seconds of listening confirmed my suspicions, and Flyleaf's self-titled debut album joined the rest of my unlistenable promo records in the Pile on the Windowsill--a musical no man's land of sketchy emo and neo-country. Months later, I'm bored and wasted in front of the TV, and happened to catch the mildly engaging video for "I'm So Sick", Flyleaf's popular new single. Just as soon as I'm about to change the channel and write off Flyleaf for good, the song hits the 30 second mark, and suddenly, out of nowhere, morphs into "Since U Been Gone" if Kelly Clarkson were way into Slayer--that is, utter and sheer pop brilliance. While parts of "I'm So Sick" borderline on Evanescence territory (treacherous waters by any respectable standard), singer Lacey Mosley's high-pitched moans and yells brings a certain level of reality to the standard teen angst format the band thrive on ("I'm so sick, infected with/Where I live/Let me live without this/Empty bliss/Selfishness"), and you find yourself kind of shedding the indie-rock cynicism and being like, You know, maybe she is sick? So the moral of the story is: Don't judge a book by its cover (or flyleaf, lol), don't knock it because it's on Fuse, and download this song as soon as you get a couple extra minutes, because the female-fronted Christian nu-metal band from Temple, Texas fucking rock.

Text: Cameron Cook
Check out the band on MySpace: myspace.com/flyleaf
Or on the real Internet: Flyleafmusic.com