Focus Reviews

August Burns Red - Messengers
Style: Metalcore
Running Time: 48 Minutes and 16 Seconds
Label: http://www.solidstaterecords.com/


Tossing the new August Burns Red record 'Messengers' into my CD player, I took a chance with Solid State Records that I hadn't taken in a while due to their usually lacking releases. While 'Thrill Seeker' really did thrill me (no pun intended) in a lot of ways 'Messengers' has taken the cake for pounding rhythms, crushing guitars and overall fantastic work for sophomore full length album releases this year. Leaving you chomping at the bit, August Burns Red tease you in and out of songs with playful fretboard work and booming drums that counter well the music. Can an album like this, revitalize a scene ? No... of course not, but it can certainly set a new bar for this genre in terms of mastery of a sound.

Spelling it all out, there are 11 songs here. Some featuring melodic interweaving of intricate lines, some being more straight forward assaults on the stereo. Some even featuring awesome bass drops, its good to see bassists get a chance to bring their instrument to the front of a breakdown, or before a melodic passage. Most, if not all feature chunky breakdowns that are heavier than ever. The rhythm section of this band has kicked it up a notch from slightly crushing to full on brutally competent attacks. Vocal work on 'Messengers' rarely strays from the raspy scream we've grown accustomed to with August Burns Red. When it does stray from standard formula though, it takes a less than clever direction that doesn't honestly hurt the album in the slightest bit. The vocals take charge through shouting passages of gang vocal work and through spoken word bits that add an emotion to nearly every song they are added to. The gang vocals work perfectly at the exact right times, and they sound as if they fit the songs perfectly when used.

50 minutes of technical guitar workings, line after line, riff after riff of awesome fret work(admittedly I'm a sucker for great guitar riffs, being a guitarist myself). Fanboy-ishness set aside though, 'Messengers' is a fantastic release with all the workings of a great album. Standard in many ways, it may be, but damn if you can fault it for that you certainly wont find much else wrong with it at all. I certainly can't fault it much for it smelling of other bands and other solid release because music is all about changing up what you've heard before to make it your own. And because there may be some parts within 'Messengers' that feel like back work of other bands, on the whole 'Messengers' feels like it was carefully constructed and thrown together with ease for all who churned it out. Though many bands suffer the much dreaded "Sophomore Slump" August Burns Red has certainly proven that adage to be completely wrong for their case.

'Thrill Seeker 2' it is not, but its still a great release from a band that has shown promise since their first EP 'Looks Fragile After All'. Completely devastating in heaviness, and neck snappingly groove laden. The booming of every double bass kick, of every bass drop, of every lower growl and even the breakdowns add a seemingly new feeling to 'Messengers'. Carrying the torch can be hard though, August Burns Red should be ready for the next upcoming fighters for their slot on metalcores top Ten list for the year.

Score: 8/10