Review Summary: A ferociously tight rhythm section struggles to save August Burns Red's Messengers from falling to the bottom of the metalcore barrel along with the bulk of the rest of the genre
Consistency and repetition are in a sense similar, but largely two very different concepts at the same time. There is a fine line that bridges the two together, and making sure not to cross the bridge over to repetition land when it comes to music and songwriting is very important and something that a lot of metalcore bands, lets face it, are very guilty of. And unfortunately August Burns Red couldn't be a more perfect case of this.
August Burns Red actually doesn't have a bad sound going for them, not at all in fact. As far as metalcore goes they are one of the stronger acts out there mainly due to Matt Greiner's excellent drumming. The rhythm guitar and drumming is so synchronized it sounds almost like some sort of mechanized machinery working together which even makes some of the dullest moments on
Messengers listenable. The drums in general on the album all sound great, especially the cymbals which all have some of the brightest and most crisp tones I've heard in metal which makes the already great drum work sound even more tastefully done.
Although the rhythm component of
Messengers is stellar, save for the inaudible bass which is far from a surprise, all of the lead work and harmonized guitar lines certainly aren't too shabby either. None of the lead lines on the album are overly technical, but again they lend a very electric, machine-like feel to the songs which certainly meshes well on top of everything going on over in the rhythm department. Vocally, this is pretty much what you would expect from a metalcore band minus the typical unnecessary melodic choruses clean sung in a whiny manner such as in other acts like
As I Lay Dying,
It Dies Today, and every other copycat band in the genre. Jake Luhrs is a very aggressive vocalist, and just the sound of the band in general could be described as extremely aggressive. There's not a single break during all eleven tracks on this album and that's where we start to run into some problems, pretty big ones actually.
I'm by no means suggesting that August Burns Red write a ballad, but to be blunt, every song on this album sounds the same. Once you get through four or five tracks it starts to become painfully clear that August Burns Red has no intention of giving you any variety for your listening pleasure. The songs aren't necessarily formulaic in their structuring, with some actually void of any direction at all, but none of them share many differences aside from the number of breakdowns in each one. And this being a review for a metalcore album on sputnik you were probably wondering by now when you would come to the section in the review written about the worthlessness of the musical technique called the breakdown. Joking aside though, August Burns Red does probably indulge into using more breakdowns than their three and four minute long songs need. For proof of this look no further than "Back Burner," actually one of the stand out tracks on the album, which packs a whopping five or six breakdowns the last time I counted in its three and half minute span.
It does however help that some of the breakdowns are actually, dare I say, good? You of course have your more traditional generic slower chugging breakdowns, but there are also some very sporadic faster breakdowns with some complicated strumming patterns, compliments of August Burn's Red notable rhythm work, which reminds me of some of the stuff on the debut album from
Born of Osiris who are also guilty of dragging down their songs with too many unnecessary breakdowns. Unfortunately only a handful of these br00t4l breakdowns actually enhance the enjoyment of the songs. Most of the time they feel like a crutch to help the songs back up when August Burns Red's creativity fails to produce something more interesting, and after listening to even half of this album you've heard probably way too much china cymbal and palm-muted chugging than you'll need for this lifetime and the next.
Having never heard of August Burns Red until they exploded last year with
Messengers and their single "Composure", I've never heard anything else in their back catalog of songs, but from what I can understand this album is a notable step up for the band. If that is the case I'm not sure I would have wanted to hear their earlier work.
Messengers is not a bad album. Hell, if you were to just cut it in half I would have probably enjoyed it significantly more without having to sit through the last tedious half of the album. No song on here is necessarily bad, but at the same time there's not really many that stand out among the eleven on the album which actually made picking my notable tracks section somewhat difficult. Your enjoyment out of each song will probably be determined by the quality or quantity of breakdowns in the song, which is a shame because these boys actually know how to play their instruments. There's a good bit of talent here, but it has yet to be fully fleshed out. Lets just hope there's a bit more metal and a little less -core on the next album.
Notable Tracks
"Back Burner"
"The Blinding Light"
"Composure"
