Sunday, July 1, 2012

Reviews...reviews...THE BURIAL, MXPX, RADIO HAVANNA

THE BURIAL "Light And Perfections" (CD)

Dissonant sounds creeping out of the outer space, a heavier than a mammoth rhythmic section and some cool crafted guitar lead lines. All this before all the band kicks in full blast with its bludgeoning metal assault. That's just a bit of things about the opening track of THE BURIAL new record entitled "LIGHTS AND PERFECTIONS".
The over 4 minutes long opening track gives out some hints about the offering from this American quartet hailing outta South Bend, Indiana.
There's the fierce death metal (not considering the more modern names like the Black Dahlia Murder, I heard some riffage that reminded me of some 90's Goteborg sounds by early Amorphis), and the disturbing layered dissonance and astral ambience of the likes of Mastodon, Isis, The Red Chord, Neurosis, a lot of progressions and chunks of melody, a bit of athmospheres a la Maiden's Rime Of The Ancient Mariner all played with fine musicianship.
With all said above you won't find it hard to believe that this record requires for repeated listens to really appreciate it in full.
The Christian metallers have been 7 years around and showcase enough maturity and confidence taking their sound a notch up with every release.
The record is packed with a cool cover artwork as most of the releases from Facedown records.

Check: www.facebook.com/theburialin


MXPX "Plans Within Plans" (CD)

Got the chance the interview Mike and check out the All Star project and now I'm here to review the latest effort from Bremerton, WA Seattle area pop-punkers MXPX.
The guys have been around twenty years, released ninth albums (including this one), toured the world wide many times (including appearances on the Warped tour) and somehow helped to shape what end of the century pop punk was all about.
What to say about the new “PLANS WITHIN PLANS”?, well, it's cool. Mike Herrera (bass vocals), Yuri Ruley (drums), Tom Wisniewski (guitar backing vox) grown up (the latter dudes are currently not touring due to their new jobs) and are definitely not the nerdy teenage-punks being beaten up by the high-school football jock on the cover artwork of their third album “Life In General” but they've proved themeselves to be still good at penning down a bunch of fast, melodic and lyrically positive tunes that won't disappoint their fans and those into pop punk.
My favourite here the Bad Religion-esque “Stay On Your Feet”, the opening "Aces" and the catchy single “Far Away” but all in all the record doesn't have fillers whatsoever.
“PLANS WITHIN PLANS” is out through German DIY label Flix records.

Check: www.facebook.com/MxPxPx
RADIO HAVANNA "Alerta" (CD)

RADIO HAVANNA (are they named after the Rancid song, or Cuba's famed broadcasting station?), politic social conscious melodic punk rock a la Anti-Flag, Stryke Anywhere with a bit of European flavour -this thought comes not only because the guys from Berlin sing in German. And that's definitely a bit of plus in my book that helps them to stand out to "your average punk band" label.
"ALERTA", the follow-up to 2010's "Lauter Zweifel", is their fourth record since band's bursting on the scene in 2002.
The opening track "Flüstern, Rufen, Schreien" (Wispers, shouts, screams) see the guest appearance of A-F's Justine Sane. Again A-F definitely counts as one of the four-some main influnce.
The guys top the gritty punk sound with tons of melody and hooks that make their songs very easy to catch and start singing a long too.
The track no.1 "Flüstern, Rufen, Schreien" stands over the other for the Euro feel I was mentioning earlier on.
A good, honest punk rock record, that's what "ALERTA" is all about.
Out on Uncle M / Cargo records.

Check: www.radiohavanna.de

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