Flyleaf by Flyleaf

Flyleaf, the self-titled debut from the Belton, Texas band, came out on Octone on October 4, 2005, with Howard Benson producing. Lacey Sturm sang, Sameer Bhattacharya and Jared Hartmann played guitar, Pat Seals played bass and James Culpepper drums, and together they made alternative metal that could turn from a whisper to a shriek in a single breath.

Sturm is the whole show: fragile and girlish one moment, a throat-shredding scream the next, singing about faith, love and death over riffs that crunch and churn. "I'm So Sick" is a snarling blast of fury, "Fully Alive" soars, and "All Around Me" is a slow-burner that builds and builds. Critics were mixed, but the album was a patient climber: it entered the Billboard 200 at number 88, peaked at 57 almost 2 years later, hung around the list for over 133 weeks, topped the Christian albums chart and went platinum.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.