Burst – Prey On Life
I really love this record, I’ll just say that up front. Burst hail from Sweden, and play a highly charged and emotional mix of hardcore and metal I guess, though really don’t come across as either. Music in this vein is a bit difficult to pigeonhole for me, in part I think I hold onto the older definitions of what those classifications mean. “Prey On Life,” is heavy, epic and melodic, energetic and written with a maturity and passion. It weaves together tempo and mood shifts, dissonance and beautiful melodic interludes, a technical flair with simple catchy riffing, and wraps them around the core of heartfelt screams/yells and that the emotional pacing of the writing rises above all else. It falls in that grey area of sonics inhabited by bands like Isis, Neurosis, but really sounds nothing like them, with to possible exceptions of a couple minor vocal comparisons to Neurosis. It doesn’t rely on the heavy drone element or extended mellow sections of either of the previous listed bands. Burst embody expressive, truly heavy music that ebbs and flows with dynamics and craft. There are some really memorable riffs and hooks and all of the instruments genuinely contribute to the whole. The production bolsters the writing to perfection, and it’s really just a fantastic release. – Scott
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