BURDEN OF GRIEF – “Follow the Flames”
July 10th, 2010
BURDEN OF GRIEF – Follow the Flames
Full – length, Massacre Records
June 2nd, 2010
Melodic Thrash/Death Metal
5/10
Follow the Flames is the fifth studio album by German band Burden of Grief. The press release provided by their label Massacre Records states that this is an album which can’t easily put into a niche, and that it can be labelled as a Thrash album at first glance, yet to me it simply sounds like a Melodic Death album (with plenty of standard melody, twin guitar harmonies, raspy vocals and pretty much any other element that made the style recognizable) with occasional Thrash (the contemporary modern kind) riff sections and many chunky groove-oriented parts thrown in for good measure.
As one would expect, the overall sound is powerful and rather bombastic like most of the bands in Massacre Roster, courtesy of Dan Swanö, who has been recruited by the band to handle production duties. Swanö also appears as a guest singer on the Bonus CD that comes along with the studio album, featuring 8 cover version of metal and rock classics (The Doors, Whitesnake, Sepultura and so on) and two other guest stars, namely Tankard’s Gerre and Sabina Classen of Holy Moses.
The problem is that, despite all the attempts of making this an interesting album (the band also made use of a Hammond organ in a couple of songs to attempt incorporating those who are described as ‘classic rock vibes’), overall there is just not enough going on to sustain it through its entire running time. Technical skills aside, the substance of this release is very generic and uninspired, and the songs show an over-reliance on imitativeness lacking the capacity to captivate or even entertain and blurring together after a while, to the point that I for one wasn’t able to recall anything significant from what I’ve heard once the CD stopped spinning. Even if you’re a fan of this kind of music, this album is most likely not going to do much for you.