Burst - Origo
Relapse Records RR6657-2 - US Release: 2/7/2006 / Europe: 24/10/2005
By Sam Brokenshaw
Burst first caught my attention a couple of years ago with the excellent "Prey on Life". This album combined the fury of death metal, the intensity of hardcore and the experimental tendencies of indie into one nicely packaged bundle. But boy, have Burst ever got their game on since then.
"Origo" is a whole other world to the last album, stylistically Burst have stayed just about on tack, but a few deviations are evident here and there as Burst explore outside the style they may not have pioneered, but mastered. "Origo" is a complex and multifaceted beast of an album, consummately the sound of a band unafraid to both grow and experiment, but also to pull it off well and realise one cannot do everything at once. The scope of the album is coruscating and panoramic, giving them listener a gaze upon a vista both inhabited by light and dark entities. These entities take the form of songs that exude confidence and a focus that bands rarely attain. Burst really do stand head and shoulders above the pack in this particular style of music.
The songs vary wildly and manage to flow, although the album works as a collection of songs rather than a continuous theme. "Where the Wave Broke" kicks things off in style, featuring some riffing that one would not usually expect to find on an album created by those of a metal pedigree. Whilst not the strongest take contained in the album, it certainly exudes the kind of joie de vivre that captures the listener's attention immediately. "The Immateria" is, for me, the true classic of this album. A wonderful exercise in the contrast between melody and brutality, it really displays a powerful control and grasp of how to create a dark soundscape within the format of a shorter song. Most of the band members contribute vocals to the album and the contrast serves the material well, from Jesper Liveröds deep growls to Robert Reinholdz's emotive clean style. "It Comes Into View" is a nicely timed instrumental that again provides a wonderfully dark soundscape with nice touches of percussion and sustained keyboards melding with effected guitar lines. Opethian dark guitar strums add a light and rolling gait to the song, all in all creating a very interesting piece of instrumental music or a nice relaxing break from the violent tendencies, depending on your point of view. The album closes with "Mercy Liberation", which strangely enough sounds curiously like a Spaghetti Western soundtrack. It creates a stunning visual idea of vast and dry landscapes that closes the album with a resigned and melancholy theme, befitting, given that which comes before it. The song builds up to a climax of frantic drumming and guitar lines with melodic singing, before a low, brutal guitar line and screamed vocals once again emerge.
I have no doubt here, that Burst have created something truly wonderful, just like Gojira they walk their own path and compromise for no one or nothing other than their own vision of their music. Origo is truly a stunning and otherworldly album full of dark and melodic puzzle boxes, which repeated listening can only slowly crack. The album gives up it's secrets over time, in the onion skin fashion, one layer is peeled off and discarded only for the listener to discover many more under the surface. It may take time to completely get to the heart of what has occurred here, but it's worth every second.
10/10
Burst's Official Website
Relapse/Release Official Website
Relapse Records RR6657-2 - US Release: 2/7/2006 / Europe: 24/10/2005
By Sam Brokenshaw
Burst first caught my attention a couple of years ago with the excellent "Prey on Life". This album combined the fury of death metal, the intensity of hardcore and the experimental tendencies of indie into one nicely packaged bundle. But boy, have Burst ever got their game on since then.
"Origo" is a whole other world to the last album, stylistically Burst have stayed just about on tack, but a few deviations are evident here and there as Burst explore outside the style they may not have pioneered, but mastered. "Origo" is a complex and multifaceted beast of an album, consummately the sound of a band unafraid to both grow and experiment, but also to pull it off well and realise one cannot do everything at once. The scope of the album is coruscating and panoramic, giving them listener a gaze upon a vista both inhabited by light and dark entities. These entities take the form of songs that exude confidence and a focus that bands rarely attain. Burst really do stand head and shoulders above the pack in this particular style of music.
The songs vary wildly and manage to flow, although the album works as a collection of songs rather than a continuous theme. "Where the Wave Broke" kicks things off in style, featuring some riffing that one would not usually expect to find on an album created by those of a metal pedigree. Whilst not the strongest take contained in the album, it certainly exudes the kind of joie de vivre that captures the listener's attention immediately. "The Immateria" is, for me, the true classic of this album. A wonderful exercise in the contrast between melody and brutality, it really displays a powerful control and grasp of how to create a dark soundscape within the format of a shorter song. Most of the band members contribute vocals to the album and the contrast serves the material well, from Jesper Liveröds deep growls to Robert Reinholdz's emotive clean style. "It Comes Into View" is a nicely timed instrumental that again provides a wonderfully dark soundscape with nice touches of percussion and sustained keyboards melding with effected guitar lines. Opethian dark guitar strums add a light and rolling gait to the song, all in all creating a very interesting piece of instrumental music or a nice relaxing break from the violent tendencies, depending on your point of view. The album closes with "Mercy Liberation", which strangely enough sounds curiously like a Spaghetti Western soundtrack. It creates a stunning visual idea of vast and dry landscapes that closes the album with a resigned and melancholy theme, befitting, given that which comes before it. The song builds up to a climax of frantic drumming and guitar lines with melodic singing, before a low, brutal guitar line and screamed vocals once again emerge.
I have no doubt here, that Burst have created something truly wonderful, just like Gojira they walk their own path and compromise for no one or nothing other than their own vision of their music. Origo is truly a stunning and otherworldly album full of dark and melodic puzzle boxes, which repeated listening can only slowly crack. The album gives up it's secrets over time, in the onion skin fashion, one layer is peeled off and discarded only for the listener to discover many more under the surface. It may take time to completely get to the heart of what has occurred here, but it's worth every second.
10/10
Burst's Official Website
Relapse/Release Official Website
