Review Summary: Bury Your Dead produce another metalcore record but this time they traded some brutal zing for melodic elements.
Some people believe when a band loses it vocalist it usually leads to the downfall or demise of the band. When AC/DC lost Bon Scott they didn’t call it quits did they? When Black Sabbath fired Ozzy in 1979, they later hired Ronnie James Dio of Rainbow to help on vocals, which I think works out better. Sometimes a band decides to take a chance in replacing the lead singer that doesn’t work out so well. Journey has replaced its’ lead singer multiple times before finally choosing Arnel Pineda of the Philippines as their permanent singer. Now ask yourself, would Journey still be Journey without Steve Perry? Would Judas Priest be Judas Priest without Rob Halford? I am by no means comparing any of these bands with the likes of Bury Your Dead. I am just simply illustrating that certain band members make the band. In the case of Bury Your Dead, quite a few fans think they are dead without Mat Bruso. I disagree. I think Mat was wonderful on the microphone but I honestly just prefer Myke Terry to his vocals.
It’s Nothing Personal is the 5th studio album from Bury Your Dead. Over the past 8 years, Bury Your Dead has gone through a tremendous amount of lineup changes. Starting out with the original five, Bury Your Dead now has had 18 current and former members, only two of which are original members. Releasing this album a mere year and two months after they released their self-titled album made me have some early doubts. Their previous effort had some pretty crushing hits but failed to deliver on the entire album. It’s Nothing Personal starts out with a pretty neat riff that makes a transition into your typical Bury Your Dead song. It has all the chugging guitars and double bass beats you’d expect. Myke’s vocals on this record sound just as good as they did on the previous record. I read somewhere that Bury Your Dead was trying to go more melodic on this record and I have to say they have succeeded but it doesn’t seem right.
“Hurting Not Helping” is the album opener and it is one of the best off the record. It showcases the bands melodic attempt by throwing in some clean vocals by Myke and just bland but still catchy guitar playing. “Without You” almost goes half the song without any screaming or growling. After a quick stint in the screaming section they go right back to the clean vocals and make the song sound more like a ballad but then quickly go back to screaming. “Without You” is a perfect balance of screaming and clean vocals but Bury Your Dead fails to space them out properly. Going from clean to scream to clean to scream is too predictable and gets boring really quickly.
“Broken Body” is my favorite track off the album because it brings everything to the table that should be brought. “This is real pain, these are real tears, this is the world falling on me” is the line that will make you remember this song and probably the album as a whole. The next couple songs are pretty bland as well. “The Great Demonizer” is a melodic song at best. They did use high pitched vocals that without a doubt stretched Myke’s range, helping make the song fairly interesting. Around the sixth track they bring a song called “Lakota” that brings some interest to the album again. The lyrics and composition of the song are most interesting to me. The song is different from other Bury Your Dead songs in that it seems to have a more laid back feel to it. It’s still metalcore but it is just downed from its normal energy level. “Lion’s Den” has some pretty good vocals again but it also has a couple catchy guitar hooks along with a pretty good chorus. My favorite part of the song is the short high pitched solo at the end purely because it is new for Bury Your Dead. “Legacy Of Ashes” goes to high pitched screams from Myke and his crew. The album dies off after that leaving the listener with only 5 decent songs.
It’s Nothing Personal is another Bury Your Dead album. It isn’t as brutal as its predecessor but it still brings something to be listened to. It’s melodic, crushing and sort of brutal all at the same time. If you weren’t a fan of Myke Terry on the first album then don’t waste your time listening to this one either. I am a fan of Myke because of his vocals but they come up just a bit short on this album. In a nutshell it’s a juggernaut metalcore album but it’s wearing a dress that it just can’t shake off. Listen to “Hurting Not Helping”, “Without You”, “Broken Body”, “Lakota” and “Lion’s Den” then forget the rest.
