Review Summary: Death, taxes, August Burns Red.
There’s something to be said for longevity and consistency. Making music is hard enough on its own, let alone maintaining a discography without major missteps. You are certainly familiar with bands that reach the highest highs in their genre, only to quickly fizzle out after a couple of albums and spend the rest of their career chasing diminishing returns. Another archetype consists of bands that take gigantic creative swings, inevitably leading to polarization and leaving opinions largely up to the listener's personal experience. Then there are the smooth-sailing, rock-solid veteran workhorses. This category of band is remarkably important to the overall musical ecosystem. You can mark a date on the calendar knowing you'll have an enjoyable experience at the very least. No duds, few surprises, just sturdy jams. There's immense value in that, and few bands have cracked that code quite like August Burns Red.
When you turn on an August Burns Red album, you pretty much know what you're in for: flashy melodic leads, relentless kit pounding and china smashing from Matt Greiner, progressive-tinged instrumentation and song structures, uplifting lyricism with a hefty emotional streak, all tied together by some of the best breakdowns in the game. This is a formula they have spent over a decade perfecting, and it really shows. You can definitely, at least partially, attribute that machine-like reliability to the band not having a lineup change in 20 years. In fact, the nine albums following
Thrill Seeker were all recorded by the exact same lineup. Seriously, how rare is that for a band? These dudes have been jamming together for a long time, and it's easy to hear that chemistry at work every time around.
That said, there's a fair amount of people who argue that consistency breeds complacency, and there's absolutely some truth to that. If you know exactly what you're in for, what's the point? Sometimes that expectation becomes muscle memory, leaving some listeners somewhat cold. Even so, I find great value in bands that take tried-and-true sounds and execute them at the highest level possible. That is very much what August Burns Red excels at. I would also maintain that their reputation for making the same album over and over again is fairly exaggerated. Sure, their albums aren't terribly far apart stylistically, but each album has its own distinct flourishes that subtly set it apart from the others. Rest assured,
Season of Surrender has an identity all its own, and it's one that may take you back in time.
I can't say I had August Burns Red releasing one of their heaviest albums more than 20 years into their career on my bingo card. I, along with many others, have longed for a return to the non-stop pummeling sound of
Messengers; this is about as close as we could hope to get.
Season of Surrender is also the band's most focused and tight album, I'd say, since 2013's
Rescue & Restore. At 44 minutes, it's their shortest album in years, trimming down the runtimes of some recent releases that pushed past the 50-minute mark. In recent years, those sprawling runtimes started to feel a little bloated, which makes a more laser-focused album more than welcome. And for as much as I enjoy their eclectic progressive influences, there’s no salsa, country or surf rock sections bogging things down here. It’s lean and mean, with all the fat cut down to the bone.
There couldn't have been a better kickoff to the nostalgic party than the opener "Legions." Hell, they even got The Devil Wears Prada vocalist Mike Hranica for a sadly abrupt feature. It will absolutely go down as one of the band's heaviest and most straightforward songs. Crushing chugs mixed with their signature soaring leads is a recipe for success. The track is given a breather with a softer section before being capped off by a truly filthy breakdown that sounds ripped straight from a deathcore album, with Jake Luhrs unleashing a nasty elongated guttural while Matt Greiner goes ballistic on the double bass.
I've never had much of an ear for great drumming, but Greiner makes his talent impossible to ignore with his speed, precision, interesting fills, and signature use of cymbals. "The Nameless" keeps up this momentum and is another punishing quick rager, with the first half heavily evoking
Messengers before transitioning into a djenty groove and robotic Meshuggah-esque solo while again delivering another gnarly breakdown. Their ability to smoothly transition between sections and make songs flow effortlessly will always be remarkable; it's like watching a conductor at work.
"Behemoth" sees August Burns Red at their absolute apex when going straightforward and shows that they can do any style of metalcore justice. This one is a pure rager, again opting for sheer heaviness. The main riff here is absolutely electric, with a bounce and groove that evokes Children of Bodom's "Are You Dead Yet?" The song strings together a series of some of their best breakdowns, backed by eerie leads. There is also a classic August Burns Red callout of "I had to suffocate to stop the suffering" before launching into the aforementioned breakdown. They have always had a knack for writing quotable lines that will rattle around in your head for days.
It’s truly remarkable how close this album feels to those early ones. It’s incredibly rare for a band to return to an older sound and still have it fit like a glove. “Den of Thieves” is a melodic yet heavy banger that feels like it was ripped right off of
Constellations and features a wonderfully iconic August Burns Red solo dripping with feeling. In a metal landscape filled with predictable, sterile solos, nobody quite does emotional leads and solos like August Burns Red. The OG fans are eating good. There are more excellent, enduring lines from Luhrs, including him screaming, “There’s nothing, there’s no one, there’s no need to go on.” His delivery has always been a standout; very discernible, yet still carrying the necessary venom. Jake is at the top of his game here and has honestly even leveled up. He sounds as good as ever, with an ever-growing versatility to his vocal arsenal, including higher shrieks and deep gutturals sprinkled throughout.
The first half of
Season of Surrender is such a breath of fresh air, with their pure brutality taking center stage for the first time in a long time. The transition into the second half is marked by a gorgeous little interlude, after which the album shifts back toward their trademark sound and blistering, blinding melodic leads return to prominence. The closing trio here is truly inspired—still sounding like traditional August Burns Red, but simply better written. “S.O.S.” sees them combining all their strengths into one track, even featuring an album title callout. “New Horizons” brings in more of their progressively structured emotions, while “Forged by Failure” ranks among the band’s tradition of epic closers: a slower track packed with feeling, showcasing a subtle orchestral layer in the back half for added emphasis. If you like the more progressive-flavored side of August Burns Red, they made this one for you.
While there is something to be said for consistently good albums, there’s something else to be said for breaking through expectations and creating something truly surprising. That is what August Burns Red have achieved with
Season of Surrender: a late-career jolt of energy for a band two decades in that some felt had stopped evolving. This is how you execute a throwback sound while still sounding fresh. It’s a tricky balance, but they get it exactly right. I’ve been on a bit of a run reviewing some of my most nostalgic bands, artists I have strong emotional connections to, and August Burns Red is no different. They were one of the first metalcore bands I gravitated toward as a teenager, and I shared a bond over their music with some of my best friends who loved them just as much as I did. I have vivid memories of listening to
Constellations with those friends, and if I had to pick, it might be the soundtrack to high school for me. It’s just good to know August Burns Red is still here, kicking ass and showing no signs of slowing down. It’s nice to have constants in life, like a sturdy oak tree outside your house. Now set a reminder for roughly three years from now, and let’s do this again.
