Review Summary: What?! Bro-core goes techno?!
I'll be honest: I like the songs on this album, but in a very strict guilty pleasure way. There is no way that I, with a clear conscience, can tell you that The Browning's full-length "Burn This World" is a good album, because it's not. I read the other review for this album and respected it, as it was a 3.5 complete with an excellent disclaimer, and decided to hear for myself. Unfortunately, I can only boil this down to three things: breakdowns, breakdown one-liners, and electronica. Honestly, I'm alright with breakdowns (unlike a good percentage of Sputnik's community), but an entire album of this stuff is a downright chore. It's as if the infamous genre of bro-core (founded by the even more infamous Emmure) added a bunch of techno samples.
The album opens with the song "No Escape," which serves two purposes: an intro, and also a blueprint set in a little under two minutes as to what every song on the album will sound like. It's something straight out of an Attack Attack! album, complete with a dance beat that swells into a huge breakdown with vocalist Jonny McBee growling his one liners over top ("There is no escape!"). Thus becomes the blueprint for all following tracks.
I had seen the video for the song "Bloodlust" and had a good time, as mentioned above in a guilty pleasure sort of way, but the kicker is... Every song sounds like it, down to the same formula: dancy or epic synths, one-liners, and breakdowns. LOTS of breakdowns. If I were to shuffle my library, and one of The Browning's tracks came on, I wouldn't mind so much, but a "linear" 13-track album for it is incredibly unnecessary. Did I mention breakdowns? Each breakdown has the same rhythm, or perhaps feels like it does after 13 frickin' tracks of it, and the majority of which is shadowed by some "epic" synth tune. Only in three tracks do I feel as though some potential besides breakdowns. Both "Living Dead" and "Forgotten" take a break from the breaking down and throw in some beautiful synth ambience passages... Only to be ruined shortly thereafter by breakdowns. Although it does not seem necessary and does not fit the overall mood, the final thirty seconds of "The Sadist" are beautiful, albeit inconsistent. Although these ups are short-lived, they are still a ray of hope.
Lyrically, The Browning is not bad per say, but cheesy. For instance, in "Time Will Tell," a song taken from a former EP, McBee tells us "You need to take a chance. Live your life with no regrets. Lost time is gone forever, So make every second count." From "Bloodlust," he also tells us "Rehearse before the pain of love. Rehearse before the pain of life, set me free from the pain of life." While these certainly trump lyrical efforts by Abandon All Ships or Dr. Acula, it sounds like something from a Disney Channel show, or from an emo teen diary, respectively. One redeeming quality of the band is McBee's vocals, which have a similar tone to Adam Warren of Oceano, and he has a pretty good range. But due to his delivery, it quickly loses effect.
All in all, we have a band devoid of substance (and arguably talent). Although I feel breakdowns can be fun, basing an entire album around them is ignorant and shallow, only to be listened to one song every now and then, and certainly not for extended periods of time. To sum up, quoting FyreNail's Attack Attack! self-titled review summary, The Browning can be described as "50% breakdowns and 50% techno."
