Bury Your Dead - Beauty And The Breakdown
Despite having a couple members from the excellent but short lived Hamartia, it's been hard to think of Bury Your Dead as anything more than an above average metalcore band in a very crowded field. Purposefully toning down the technical aspects/melodeath of their previous band in favor of simple, breakdown heavy mosh metalcore, they've made some pretty good records but nothing that really challenges the elite of the genre.
That is until now. Making a similar if not quite as drastic leap in heaviness and songwriting prowess as the recent The Acacia Strain album, they've managed to drop an absolutely punishing mosh inducing metalcore masterpiece that takes the core (sorry, couldn't resist) of their approach but adds enough unconventional elements to push it into the realm of something truly special.
Whereas The Acacia Strain dishes out somewhat convoluted rhythms that can be difficult to wrap your head around, Bury Your Dead keeps it more accessible with pure, groove laden, tough guy mosh metal similar to what Throwdown has been dishing out on their last couple discs. The only big difference between the two is easily spotted in the title. This aptly titled release leaves no illusion as to what this album is comprised of: breakdown after beautiful breakdown. This is quite simply a breakdown lover's paradise. Slow breakdowns, fast breakdowns, complex breakdowns, simple chugging breakdowns and everything in between. You basically can't take a step in any direction without running headlong into a quality breakdown.
That is the major difference between their previous efforts and this album. When you live and die by the breakdown it's a huge challenge to keep songs interesting and varied enough from each other to make a strong album from end to end. For instance, their last effort, "Cover Your Tracks", starts strong but begins to fade as too similar songs come one after the other. On "Beauty And The Breakdown" they've largely solved this problem by upping the groove, adding tasteful industrial touches and keeping the breakdowns focused, regardless of the many speeds they're delivered at, on delivering maximum head banging/mosh time rather than unnecessary complexity.
It's probably no surprise to fans that Bury Your Dead delivers an excellent array of tasty breakdowns on this album but some may be shocked by the quite frequent use of industrial sounding add-ons. They range from frequent drum crossfades/synthetic drum loops to old school tape tweaks to my personal favorite, a squirrelly keyboard line that slithers through the high energy album highlight "The Poison Apple". But their boldest foray into industrial is part way through "Mirror, mirror..." where there's a full thirty eight second synthetic drum/keyboard passage that wouldn't be entirely out of place in your local dancehall. This sounds like it would totally suck but it's actually a nice accompaniment to the song, giving it a bit more flair than your average metalcore song as do all the industrial elements found here.
The bottom line is that if you've passed on these guys before for their somewhat generic past efforts you will be pleasantly surprised to find a bigger, meaner and ultimately more exciting Bury Your Dead here. Along with the latest The Acacia Strain, this is definitely one of the best heavy as hell metalcore records you'll come across this year.
That is until now. Making a similar if not quite as drastic leap in heaviness and songwriting prowess as the recent The Acacia Strain album, they've managed to drop an absolutely punishing mosh inducing metalcore masterpiece that takes the core (sorry, couldn't resist) of their approach but adds enough unconventional elements to push it into the realm of something truly special.
Whereas The Acacia Strain dishes out somewhat convoluted rhythms that can be difficult to wrap your head around, Bury Your Dead keeps it more accessible with pure, groove laden, tough guy mosh metal similar to what Throwdown has been dishing out on their last couple discs. The only big difference between the two is easily spotted in the title. This aptly titled release leaves no illusion as to what this album is comprised of: breakdown after beautiful breakdown. This is quite simply a breakdown lover's paradise. Slow breakdowns, fast breakdowns, complex breakdowns, simple chugging breakdowns and everything in between. You basically can't take a step in any direction without running headlong into a quality breakdown.
That is the major difference between their previous efforts and this album. When you live and die by the breakdown it's a huge challenge to keep songs interesting and varied enough from each other to make a strong album from end to end. For instance, their last effort, "Cover Your Tracks", starts strong but begins to fade as too similar songs come one after the other. On "Beauty And The Breakdown" they've largely solved this problem by upping the groove, adding tasteful industrial touches and keeping the breakdowns focused, regardless of the many speeds they're delivered at, on delivering maximum head banging/mosh time rather than unnecessary complexity.
It's probably no surprise to fans that Bury Your Dead delivers an excellent array of tasty breakdowns on this album but some may be shocked by the quite frequent use of industrial sounding add-ons. They range from frequent drum crossfades/synthetic drum loops to old school tape tweaks to my personal favorite, a squirrelly keyboard line that slithers through the high energy album highlight "The Poison Apple". But their boldest foray into industrial is part way through "Mirror, mirror..." where there's a full thirty eight second synthetic drum/keyboard passage that wouldn't be entirely out of place in your local dancehall. This sounds like it would totally suck but it's actually a nice accompaniment to the song, giving it a bit more flair than your average metalcore song as do all the industrial elements found here.
The bottom line is that if you've passed on these guys before for their somewhat generic past efforts you will be pleasantly surprised to find a bigger, meaner and ultimately more exciting Bury Your Dead here. Along with the latest The Acacia Strain, this is definitely one of the best heavy as hell metalcore records you'll come across this year.
