Review Summary: Bury Your Dead is a model of consistency is today's metal world. They have a tried and true method and shake things up just enough to keep you interested. This CD is nothing new. BYD continues to manufacture high quality metalcore without doing too much o
Bury Your Dead is a fairly well established metalcore act. Oftentimes common on MTV's Headbanger's Ball, their definitely one of the forerunners in today's crowded mainstream metalcore (if such a thing exists anymore).
The CD kicks off with
Sympathy Orchestra , a fiery opener that sets the tone for the rest of the album. The chorus is dark and very catchy. The vocals are a bit weird, he sounds like he's about to puke, but the song is great, heavy and just fast enough to keep your interest. Solid song 3/5
Next Up is
Hands to Hide the Shame another good consistent song. A killer riff carries the whole song along, lead on by the singer's excellent vocals with some layered screaming. With a steady cruising speed, it would be one hell of a song to mosh to. Good heavy verses and a great chorus. As on the last song the instrumentation won't wow you but its a great, heavy, brutal song nonetheless. Vocals really make the song 3.5/5
Fever Dream begins with one of those intros that kicks in piece by piece, something tried and true in metalcore. The verse has some frantic dual screaming, alternating back and forth, leading into a great chorus with some very heavy, gruff singing, reminiscent of old A7X. The song rolls on. Another solid gem by BYD. 3.5/5
Following this is
Womb Disease . Starting off with an intro where you can actually hear the bass! It's pretty much typical BYD fare, layered screaming in the verse adds a nice brutal feel, leading into a heavy climbing chorus. Theres also a breakdown about 50 seconds in that I found very catchey. Theres a small interlude leading into a weak bridge that sort of kills the whole momentum of the song, but it ends solidly yet again. with a sort of semi breakdown. 3/5
Then we have
Infidel's Hymn . A great intro leads into a decent verse which gradually builds into a bridge that has a sort of spacey guitar line going in the background. They then kill the riff and roll into a ferocious section followed by another sick chorus with more of that screamey-singing. Definitely one of the better songs on the CD. Has a sort of eerie, regretful mood to it that shows good songwriting on the bands behalf. 4.5/5
Year One opens up right off the back with some heavy screaming. This clearly one of the bands more technical songs, sounded very carefully planned out and engineered, going from rolling metal to power ballad. The effect is definitely something I can enjoy. Tortured screaming blazes through the verses leading into the BEST chorus on a BYD CD ever. Clean singing rules over a emoish background, but it ends right before it gets corny exploding right into more screaming and then a guitar solo in the world of BYD. The solo is actually very very good and the song ends on an excellent note. Best song on CD by a mile 5/5
Up Next is
Angel With a Dirty Face . Going back to the BYD we all know, its tough to top Year One so maybe thats why I don't like this song as much. That aside ,the songs carries angry, brutal vocals and instrumentation with another very good chorus and a typical breakdown Not Year Zero, but not to shabby at all 3/5
Then the CD rolls right on into
Disposably Yours its a typical BYD song nothing amazing nothing too great about it. The screaming sounds a bit better on this song to me, but I feel like I've heard the music before. Breakdown with OK riff. I'm not totally sure why, but it feels uninspired. An average song 2.5/5
We then have
A Devil's Ranson making up all the ground that last song lost. A heavy verse explodes into a roller coaster of a chorus. Screaming is well done here too. Good riff follows whole song. 3.5/5
Fool's Gold is the oddity on this CD. A bouncy emoish intro with a choppy guitar line, changes in seconds into another angry brutal verse and an above average chorus with a time change at the end. A depressing bridge carrying a bipolar vibe, and a decent outro. Good song, nothing too special 3/5
Dust to Dust the closer on the CD kicks off with an amazing epic intro with a good harmonic blazing along with it. Good heavy guitar and drums chug along behind anguished vocals with another killer chorus with what sounds like some group singing. An excellent song to close out the CD, there's some more good clean singing and ends with a choppy riff. Maybe the 2nd best song, more likely the 3rd or 4th if you were looking for a bonus track.
4.5/5
All told, this effort by BYD is another example of what they can do. They play highly consistent metalcore that is a model of consistency in today's overcrowded inconsistent music scene. They wont wow you with anything shiny or new, but they have a tried and true formula and know how to mix it up just enough to keep you loving it. I won't bother averaging the scores because of BYD being BYD nothing they do will ever be a classic it'll just be consistently awesome. So I give it a 4 :it breaks down like this.
Guitar-4/5
Production-4.5/5
Drums-3/5
Vocals-4/5
Bass-2.5/5
Pros
-Great choruses, really show maturity and development
-Excellent production. well put together and flows well
-Heavy and brutal just like always
Cons
-New mainstreamish parts may not please fans of older stuff
-Bass is heard only a few times
-Breakdowns are a bit boring
(Note, this is my first unmonitered review, Comments and criticisms are greatly appricated)
