Review Summary: Remember that time your toilet was overflowing? Ramp up that nauseating sense of urgency by twenty-thousand, and you’ll have put The Blood Brother’s sprawling, spastic masterpiece into perspective.
Now that we can safely look back on that magical, far-gone decade known as the 2000s, I think we can officially crown The Blood Brothers as one of the most ingenious, creative heavy bands of that decade. The band was truly its own little thing, as they sounded like nothing that came before them and very few has been able to imitate their sound and style since. And because I missed out on the original pressing of the album, I was more than happy to pick up the re-release of
Burn, Piano Island, Burn, since it was easily the best effort of their entire catalogue, and thus, one of the best records of the 2000s.
If we’re going to talk about the greatness of
Burn, Piano Island, Burn, there’s no better starting point than honouring the front men of the band, Jordan Billie and Johnny Whitney. These guys are easily one of the best one-two punches of any dual-vocal band ever, as Johnny’s screeching and melodic musings combined with Jordan’s goat-like bleating is just so engrossing and effective: not only do they both play off each other constantly while switching sections and lines back and forth (i.e. the narratives of “Ambulance vs. Ambulance”), they often double up and deliver a section in two different registers. It’s definitely a defining characteristic of the band, and it remains to be fascinating to listen to after all these years.
And the music, well, let’s be truthful: listening to
Burn, Piano Island, Burn is akin to riding the rollercoaster with your hair on fire. The band weaves and jerks in and out of several interwoven parts, rarely settling on any given section for too long or coming back to a previous riff. The Blood Brothers really turn the verse-chorus-verse structure right on its ear, as
Burn, Piano Island, Burn is unrestrained, free-flowing and just downright hysterical. Songs like “God Bless You, Blood Thirsty Zeppelins” and “Six Nightmares at the Pinball Masquerade” are just four minute cuts of thick riffs, avant-garde structures and crazy screaming, and you’ll be lucky to arrive at the same part twice. But through the chaos, and after several different listens, you’ll quickly fall in love with barrage of different parts, and suddenly to whole song just sounds coherent and the constant shifts start to become natural.
But with something this eccentric, you’re obviously bound to find some faults. While I can give praise for their unique and spastic structures, sometimes I find myself wishing that they just would simplify things: sometimes “sitting through” a part while waiting for a better one is a common experience of a digested Blood Brothers album, and this is no different of
Burn, Piano Island, Burn. It can get a little
too crazy sometimes, and you really have to be in the mood to comprehend and enjoy such madness. And although the topic of lyrical content doesn’t really matter to me, I will cast my ballot for “what the bloody hell are they talking about?”, as the lyrics really walk the fine line between abstract art and just plain gibberish.
Even after several years after it’s release, it is still very inspiring that something as unique and different as
Burn, Piano Island, Burn could reach such acclaim and have such a lasting impression. Surely when we talk about bands that were ahead of their time, The Blood Brothers and their masterpiece,
Burn, Piano Island, Burn, won’t be far from the conversation. Jarring, melodic and creative-as-hell,
Burn, Piano Island, Burn will be remember for years to come, and it still to this day delivers a potent, one-of-a-kind listening experience.
