After seeing the video for “The Color Of Money” on mtv2’s headbangers ball, there were two initial thoughts on what I had just heard, either they were going to be the most amazing hardcore band I ever heard or that that would be the only song they ever head worth anything, well turns out that the first one was right.
The next day I went to all of my local record stores to find this album, after going to four stores I finally found it. Picking it up I noticed two thing, it was a victory records band and victory records has never disappointed me before, and that all of the songs were named after Tom Cruise movies, which seemed quite odd to me. Regardless I bought the CD at an unbelievably cheep price($9.95)
Upon the moment I put it in my cd player and heard the rolling intro to “top gun” I was hooked, these guys know brutality, the drums roll with perfect percussion and the heavy chug of the two rhythm guitars and bass compliment it perfectly, then six seconds into the song I heard the most amazing thing, the singer had the perfect voice for hardcore, his raspy screams make they’re entire feel of brutality fit.
By the time “vanilla sky” had started I was hooked, the lyrics are so emotional but the deliverance was anything but emo. “mission:impossible” comes in slow but by the forty second mark the most brutal breakdown I’ve ever heard has begun and I could almost feel the fists flying around at one of their shows. The same feeling came over me as I continued into the opening breakdown of “eyes wide shut” then his lyrics hit screaming “there’s nothing that you could say to me to keep me from walking away” a super emotional hit but it was delivered in the most brutal way imaginable, the songs takes you into an assault of breakdowns before making a swift change into a piano outro.
Track five, “Magnolia”, is the closest thing Bury Your Dead has to an emo song. The lyrics are extremely personal, but I can’t help thinking that I would hate to be the girl who inspired this song. But soon into it you realize that this isn’t a love song it’s a brutal goodbye to an ex (almost reminiscent of remembering never’s “she looks so good in red”) I do believe that “magnolia” is a single it absolutely makes since.
Through “the outsiders” and “mission: impossible II” bury your dead continues with their brutal assault and at track eight comes the most mind blowing song on the album, “the color of money”, the song that made me want this cd in the first place and it’s every bit of what hardcore should be.
“Risky Business” provides once more a brutal assault of heavy rhythm guitar and pounding drums while the vocals deliver a surprisingly vengeful attack(“you crossed the line from enemy to casualty the day you disrespected me”) and the cd does the exact opposite of winding down as “legend” and “all the right moves” come in. and finally the cd closes with “losin’ it” which is a perfectly heavy way to close this hardcore masterpiece.
