Review Summary: Mediocre metalcore, why are these guys so famous?
‘’Messengers’’ is the first-full length album by August Burns Red, a Christian high-school metal core band. The album has already sold over 80.000 copies worldwide, did they deserve that? At first I would like to state that I am a HUGE fan of the metal core genre, but it has to be executed well. I have my doubts about this album, and mainly a couple of complaints. The album starts off like you would expect from a metal core band, breakdowns and all. But I got the message that these ‘’Messengers’’ did not have any inspiration at all during the produce of this album. This album is monotone, boring and overall a mess.
The first couple of songs are actually quite good, they got me head banging at first. But after a few listens they gave me a headache, and not because of my head banging-skills, but because of the jumpiness that all the songs contain. By this I mean that the songs are very chaotic and jump from one rhythm to another. It’s like the band is just improvising. The amount of breakdowns on this album is ridiculous, it seems like every song has to contain at least four breakdowns, and after two songs that gets boring, really boring. Mainly because they all sound the same, they miss diversity.
You might think: ‘’Okay, but I thought that was what metal core is about’’. But metal core is more than just playing repetitive breakdowns. There has to be a special ingredient: some thrashy riffs, some diverse drum parts, some complex guitar solos, and some changes of pace. But this album lacks all of that. This album is the most basic metal core that one could make. And it really surprises me that August Burns Red is considered one of the best metal core bands out there.
The vocals/lyrics are very repetitive and stay the same throughout the whole album and are of no added value. The lyrics are also a bit meaningless: ‘’When did you become so cold? When did you become so cold? ´´ honestly makes no sense to me. The two lead guitars also aren’t great, the riffs on every song tend to go on the same type of rhythms over and over again. The drums are kept on the background for the most part, the only drum parts that you can hear clearly are the drum parts during the breakdowns, but then all you hear is the same china during every breakdown during every song. So the instruments are not good individually, but this is the same when you listen to all the instruments together. The music misses structure and something special to break the repetitive cyclus.
The best song, by far, is ‘’Composure’’. A real energetic song, which shows that the band is able to make enjoyable metal core. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is not like this. ‘’Composure’’ makes all the other songs feel like fillers, and if you’ve listened to this song, you’ve basically listened to the whole album.
Overall, this album is just metal core at its base. I hope that August Burns Red will keep on developing their musicianship as the band members were still in high-school when they formed as a band. This kind of music is cool to hear played live, running around in a mosh-pit during the never-ending breakdowns, but I suggest you to avoid this album in any other occasion. It will get on your nerves and it will give you headaches, trust me…
