Review Summary: Surprise! As Cities Burn re-emerge with some of their best music yet.
As Cities Burn is a very dramatic band. Their name isn’t exactly subtle. They go in and out of periods of activity and inactivity, which is itself not all that strange, by framing it as a BREAKUP, FOREVER THIS TIME! before some period of months or perhaps years later they have REUNITED, IMPLAUSIBLY, YET AGAIN! Okay guys, I’ve been through this a bunch of times since I started listening to your music back in 2009, and I’m rather nonplussed by it all at this point.
This kind of drama would be excusable if the music is good. Often enough, the tours of a reunited rendition of this band have been solid enough, as I can attest from seeing them a few times in the 2010s. But the returns were more mixed on 2019’s “Scream Through The Walls,” a record that saw a return to something like the 2005 version of the band. I was rather unimpressed by the album and felt like it was, more often than not, a disjointed mess. When the band declared they’d played their final show For Real This time in 2023 or whatever, I thought maybe it was actually the end.
Yet I wasn’t shocked when I started getting emails that they were in the studio and recording new stuff. I was ready to give them another chance, and felt optimistic. Turns out that this optimism paid off, because Brain Matter(s) is a real return to form, with the band sounding more focused and purposeful than they have in a long time. Fans of their third LP Hell Or High Water will probably be the most pleased with the record, as it sounds like a natural development of the band’s trajectory from that time.
Right from the opening chords, this feels like a far more personal record from Cody Bonnette and friends, with a warmer, more acoustic-integrated sound that reminds you of the warm fuzzies produced by great songs of Manchester Orchestra or Brand New. But As Cities Burn still sound very much like themselves, as you give them some time to develop their ideas. This aspect the album, which is in far less of a rush to explain itself than Scream Through The Walls, is a wise call.
All the things you love about As Cities Burn are here, but often expressed in new and subtle-yet-effective ways. Cody’s spiraling guitar leads and Aaron Lunsford’s intricate-yet-propulsive drumming are recognizable, but selectively deployed in a reflection of maturity and grown-up confidence that’s refreshing rather than boring. “Mr. Villainous” is the point at which it really sounds like classic As Cities Burn, but the journey to get there is thoroughly enjoyable. A track like “The War of God And Peace” shows exactly why this band is at their best when Cody is in the spotlight. Deft lyricism and delivery here, and throughout the album, presents Bonnette as having lost none of his songwriting chops over the years. He might, in fact, be at the height of his powers here.
The rustic stomp of “Brain matter” or heartfelt “Mind Chatter” could’ve come straight off of Hell Or High Water, but As Cities Burn has more tricks up their sleeve. The caustic “Jester” is the most aggressive, biting, and witty cut of the album, reminding a bit of Come Now Sleep’s heavy-hitting A-side as it cuts through the song-and-dance of the alt-Christian music industry, nearly-menacing light piercing through in the final measures of the song. “Us Defines The Means” might have the best guitar playing of the whole record, building up to a warm catharsis, while “Bottoms Up For The Kids” and “Dog Tired” sound almost like a more coherent take on what the band was trying to do on their previous album.
Coherence is the key to distinguishing this from the preceding album: Brain Matter(s) represents Cody firmly in the driver’s seat, whereas the jumbled nature of Scream Through The Walls could probably be attributed to the tug of TJ and others in less complementary directions. This record reflects a more mature Cody Bonnette, and one who is probably more comfortable in his own skin and less preoccupied with meeting preconceived notions than any preceding rendition of the band. Brain Matter(s) doesn’t conclude with an epic bang, but a pair of understated yet intriguing songs - “Steady My Heart” could slot into Come Now Sleep without much trouble, and is also one of the longer songs on a record that deals a lot of shorter songs.
Despite As Cities Burn’s penchant for drama, this is probably their least-dramatic album, which turns out to be a good thing, and probably just what they needed. Coming out of nowhere with little fanfare preceding a new album is probably the right course for a band that benefits from tempering their impulsive side. I could see some fans being underwhelmed or even bored by the record, which is probably inevitable but still a bit of shame. This is in fact one of their best moments yet.
