Artist: Burnt by the Sun
Label: Relapse Records
Release Date: 10/7/03
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Title: The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good Artist: Burnt by the Sun Label: Relapse Records Release Date: 10/7/03 |
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Abyss's Review:
Okay, I guess I’ll be abbreviating this album title. Burnt By The Sun’s new record is a frustrating effort in that it has a lot of killer parts, but when summed up the album as a whole comes across as hard to listen to. While the album has some cool riffs and infectious breakdowns, I find myself constantly distracted, mostly by studio tricks and samples that do little to set a tone and wind up just pissing me off.
"Okay, I guess I’ll be abbreviating this album title." The songs themselves are pretty straightforward, and that’s another problem with the record. In many ways the album is generic metalcore, doing little to set itself apart from an ever more crowded playing field. In my opinion this genre is closing in on its peak saturation point, taking less time to get there than either black metal or the Gothenburg scene did. And while it would be a lie to say that I don’t enjoy this record, I’d be remiss if I said that I could get overly excited about it.
"One word review: Good. " It isn’t a bad album, per se, but I find my attention drifting whenever I listen to it. To their credit, the band usually hits a part before too long that jerks me out of my stupor, but eventually I lose interest again. This is unfortunate because this is a band that I’ve enjoyed in the past, especially in a live setting. But all the energy they emit on stage is lost when it put on disc, revealing the band to be a middle tier act.
Fans of the genre will most likely be satisfied with this effort, but I think most metalheads are waiting for something fresher and more consistent. One word review: Good.
Death's Review:
"Lyrcially, packaging-wise and production-wise, Burnt By the Sun are a more mature, more evolved metalcore band, and their new album, The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good, deserves your respect." Let me officially declare that “metalcore,” as a genre, is dangerously close to being creatively spent. Sure, bands are starting to sign to majors and getting big tours and MTV airplay, but the shit is getting cheesier and cheesier, the music is getting tired and repetitive, and the haircuts are starting to take precedence. I am seriously getting turned off to this style of music. But some bands do it better than others. Some, like Lamb of God or Shadows Fall, simply because they are far more “metal” than “core.” Others, like Burnt By the Sun, because they are more intelligent. Lyrcially, packaging-wise and production-wise, Burnt By the Sun are a more mature, more evolved metalcore band, and their new album, The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good, deserves your respect.
That said, it is nothing altogether that special musically. There are some cool riffs, but I liked 2002’s Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution a lot better. These riffs just don’t grab me the same way as the last album did. There is some interesting guitar work and some interesting musicianship on display here, but nothing that takes this album over the hump from “good” to “very good” or “great”. This is a solid effort from a worthy band, but it is not a “must-have” record by any stretch of the imagination.
Hel's Review:
I have long believed that the fundamental difference between a band being strictly "hardcore" and being "metalcore" is the presence of a metal drummer behind the kit. A purely hardcore drummer does not utilize much double bass nor do they spend much time with complicated fills. The difference between these two styles is, in and of itself, enough to make any hardcore band much more metal. By the same token, a vocalist can have a similar impact - if you put a hardcore vocalist in front of a true metal band, it instantly becomes less metal and more hardcore. I believe that the predominant classification of Burnt by the Sun as being at least partly hardcore is the result of the latter.
"If you like good musicianship and songwriting wrapped up in a nicely produced package, check out Burnt by the Sun." Burnt by the Sun undeniably has a hardcore vocalist at the mic. And they just as undeniably have a metal drummer behind the kit, and an extremely good one at that. On any day of the week, I will take a metal band with a hardcore vocalist over a hardcore band with a metal drummer. I consider BBTS to be a metal band with a hardcore vocalist, though the guitars occasionally walk the line between the two. Their songwriting is the hectic style with many different time changes that is often associated with bands on the Relapse roster. Overall, I have always considered BBTS to be a solid, extremely enjoyable band, and The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good is consistent with my prior analyses.
I do, however, despise the 40-minute assault on my hearing that closes out the record. It begins with a tone in a similar frequency to the one that comprised the testing of the Emergency Broadcast System, back in the days when they still bothered with that. The tone modulates slightly up or down occasionally, and ultimately there are a few true musical notes at the end. Overall though, I consider this to be a waste of space, and I find it extremely irritating every time I reach this point of the album. Invariably, up until this, I had been enjoying the disc, but this ruins it each time. In my book, it's utterly useless. Next time guys, skip the exercise in noise pollution and just give me 30 minutes of music, please.
Overall, I can say with complete confidence that fans of Burnt by the Sun will enjoy this, their newest release. Regardless of how you choose to classify their music, this is a band with appeal for most fans of both hardcore and metal. If you like good musicianship and songwriting wrapped up in a nicely produced package, check out Burnt by the Sun.
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