Upon a Burning Body is a fairly new deathcore band that is
signed on to the extremely well-known Sumerian Records. For those of you that
don’t know about Sumerian Records, they’re known for signing a fairly wide
range of artists all the way from screamo to progressive metal to technical
death which includes The Faceless, Veil of Maya, Born of Osiris, I See Stars,
After the Burial, Asking Alexandria, and Periphery. One of the artists on their
roster is one that is mainly only known amongst the deathcore crowd, Upon a
Burning Body. I haven’t heard anything special about these guys from other
critics, but since I’ve been surprised by Sumerian Records before, I decided
that it wouldn’t hurt to give these guys a listen.
The general theme of this album is well…Latino, Mexican, and
Texan pride. For some people, this is a relief since it’s basically a break
from the typical hate/anger-oriented themes found in the deathcore genre that
was pioneered by bands like All Shall Perish, Despised Icon, Lamb of God, and
Heaven Shall Burn. So since the lyrics and general themes seem to be more
up-beat, I guess the band is taking an approach similar to what Attila is known
for.
But unlike a lot of people, lyrics and themes aren’t going
to cut it for me. I couldn’t possibly care any less what the lyrics are about.
Since the majority of deathcore bands seem to be doing (almost) the exact same
thing, I’m looking for a band that could be appropriately be considered a black
sheep. I’m looking for a band that either does something different/new or does
what everyone else is doing, but better. One thing that I’ve noticed for sure,
this isn’t a disaster in any way. And Upon a Burning Body has a better chance
of succeeding because they’re creating music in a much underused territory
(when speaking of DEATHCORE). What I’m talking about is combining the extremely
energetic metalcore and hardcore punk elements and combining it with the
generic deathcore sound. This kind of sound can be heard in Bring me the
Horizon’s Suicide Season and Attila’s Outlawed (I’m positive that there’s more
of it out there that I don’t know about). But this sound is most commonly found
in the really heavy metalcore bands like Struc/tures and Architects.
This album has a shitload of energy, there’s no denying
that. But I’m looking for a band that wants to do it better than its
predecessors (or at least TRIES to). People have long-since figured out that
the breakdowns are where the energy level reaches its pinnacle. It’s sort of
obvious, whether someone likes them or not, it’s hard not to feel the explosive
release of all the energy built up in the song. It’s when you start having
breakdowns with little or no buildup at all where there’s a problem. I don’t
give a fuck who did this first because I can’t stand either of these bands, but
The Acacia Strain and Emmure saw that there was a lot of people that listened
to deathcore in anticipation for the breakdowns; the breakdowns were where the
fans would go absolutely nuts. So these bands decided to go with what was
popular and said to themselves “If breakdowns are what the people are liking,
then why don’t we just play breakdowns with occasional fillers?” Well, they did
get the logic right because…well…look at how fucking famous both of those bands
are! Emmure has had HUGE bands like Despised Icon, Winds of Plague,
blessthefall, Born of Osiris, All Shall Perish, AND Iwrestledabearonce as
OPENING acts! This sound, when combined with the more melodic sound of August
Burns Red creates the modern (and unfortunately stereotypical) metalcore sound.
But when you take that sound, take out the singing, and turn up the crunchiness
and heaviness factor, you get a type of deathcore that’s still very new, but
that’s growing at a horrifying rate.
Although it’s extremely catchy, the song structure is disappointingly
simple and takes the fun out of anticipation. I even found myself ACCURATELY
guessing the exact breakdown pattern before it even started! Even in the one
song that actually grabbed my attention, Sin City. It starts out with this
really cool soft guitar intro which then leads into the exact chugging
breakdown pattern that I was expecting. One thing that I was surprised to hear
was that in some parts there were some really moving parts that were created
specifically to start a mosh pit. But all throughout the album, the band just
makes it way too obvious when they’re about to play another breakdown.
Fortunately, the band manages to maintain a high energy level for the duration
of the album, so it’s not like the breakdowns are dull and without energy due
to virtually no buildup. But it still takes the fun out of it for me and
basically abuses and overuses the breakdown.
The bassist is the worst member of the band. He’s not tight
with the drummer like he’s supposed to be, he’s not even tight with the
guitars! There are some really tight breakdowns where he obviously practiced
and managed to stay with the rest of the band. But it seems that he didn’t put
much dedication and practice into EVERYTHING. Now this is JUST A GUESS, but I’m
pretty sure that the producer of this album was also the producer for
Struc/tures’ debut full-length because the guitar distortions sound IDENTICAL.
They’re both EXTREMELY loud, very crunchy and have a really thick distortion;
and the guitar distortions do nothing short of amplifying the energy level.
The drummer is where the true talent in this band lies. The
kick drumming is fantastic; he likes to keep things interesting by switching
back and forth between complex and simple fills. If your stereo has A LOT of
bass or good subwoofers, his blast beats feel like a stampede of wildebeests
pummeling you into the dirt. The vocalist uses a combination of deepish growls,
screams, and really dirty yells (which could probably be easily considered
really high growls). This album has grit, it has energy, and it has catch. But
it still manages to leave the listener unsatisfied and empty. Basically, it’s
all icing, but no cake. I would give this album 11/20 for having good
qualities, one good song, good drumming, no bad qualities, but no satisfying
traits what so ever.
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