Review Summary: Southern California's Burning The Masses, describe their sound as, "18 YEAR OLDS MAKIN' GANGSTA SHIET WITH PHAT SWEEPS," and I will admit, the sweeps are indeed phat. A bit sloppy at points, but they're young, so they can only improve.
If you've ever been bored and took the time to look up the top bands for any genre on myspace, you were probably extremely disappointed with what you've found. Search the genre death metal, and you'll get trash like Waking The Cadaver and Wecamewithbrokenteeth, but one band I've stumbled upon has really caught my attention.
Southern California's Burning The Masses, describe their sound as, "18 YEAR OLDS MAKIN' GANGSTA SHIET WITH PHAT SWEEPS," and I will admit, the sweeps are indeed phat. A bit sloppy at points, but they're young, so they can only improve, and besides, these sweeps are phat nonetheless.
One thing I love about this album is how varied it is. The focus of the band seems to be to be as flowingly varied as possible while keeping things aggressive and brutal. Songs vary from extremely melodic At The Gates-esque moments, to relentless Animosity-like deathcore segments, to epic solos reminiscent of a sloppier-early In Flames (with overly wanky sweeping thrown in).
I must emphasize Dane's vocal ability as well, while on their demo he sounded somewhat like a cricket doing highs and a pig attempting lows, he seems to have grown quite a bit... his highs are a nice raspy shriek with a good bit of support, and his lows are absolutely incredible. Arde, the guitarist does some very good inhale parts too, reminiscent of Bear from See You Next Tuesday. There's an especially enjoyable call and response passage betwen Dane and Arde about a minute and a half into Brace For Departure.
The drumming is also extremely impressive, their old drummer was a tad on the sloppy side, but their current drummer, Alex is really tight. He's not the most creative drummer ever, but he brings a lot of groove to the table.
Guitarwise, Burning The Masses' sound is usually somewhat similar to Through The Eyes Of The Dead, but a bit more of a bassy tone, and more tech-oriented, and less melodic death oriented. One of my favorite riffs ever would probably be the opening riff of the fourth track, Cyanide, it just shows what death metal should be, reminiscent of the early era's, but more importantly, reminiscent of a horde of zombies swarming to eat every ***ing face on the face of the Earth.
I must also emphasize that Chris and Arde definitely stand out above the crowd of young death metal bands for their ability to solo... too often have I heard horrible solos from bands like Job For A Cowboy and The Black Dahlia Murder, however, this guitar duo actually show a promise to one day be like the combo of Jesper Stromblad and Glenn Ljuringstrom. Solos follow a pattern of melody rather than... uhhh... well they make sense, unlike most modern solos.
Overall the only real issue with the album is some sloppy sweeping here and there, and a bit of genericism [which pales in comparison to most bands of the genre], and this'll all most likely improve as they age [let us not forget Animosity].
Highlight tracks:
Brace For Departure
Cyanide
Nailgun Massacre
EDIT: the first song, Doppleganger is a sweet instrumental.
