Burn in Silence are a strange band. I don't mean that in the sense that they have an unparalleled level of originality but more so in that they play in a scene lacking any emotion. Don't try to fool yourself, most Melodic Metalcore is half-assed Melodic Death Metal with catchy choruses aiming for mainstream success (see Atreyu) that sounds completely mechanical and soulless. But then you have Burn in Silence, a band that play with such fury and anger. Their music is absolutely crushing up until their catchy choruses which are powerful and memorable.

Angel Maker is amazing from start to finish. The album kicks off with Lines From an Epitaph, a track loaded with breakdowns that still manages to be interesting. Rebirth is like modern In Flames done well with the addition of keyboards. The Age in Which Tomorrow Brings sounds like more standard Metalcore but with an incredibly catchy chorus. Embrace the Plague begins with a technical riff that wouldn't sound out of place in an Ignominious Incarceration song. Then you have Primal Human Pain, which begins with the cry of "Pure as your first day" and a thrashy riff before heading straight into keyboard dominated Melodic Death Metal. The second half of the album fares just as well with Watching Dead Leaves Fall being a highlight thanks to the very well done and interesting drumming.

Angel Maker is littered with well done key sections that add a strong dark atmosphere, and they even sound romantic at times (Watching Dead Leaves Fall for example). The keys are greatly used in conjunction with the guitars, with the two often complementing each other. For example, World of Regret kicks off with a chaotic riff with the keys then adding an extremely apocalyptic tone to it all.

As amazing as Angel Maker is it does contain two problems, and even then they aren't that bad. The first is the vocals. Chris Harrell isn't a terrible vocalist, in fact his clean vocals are some of the best you'll find in Melodic Metalcore, a far cry from the squeaky chipmunk sounding vocals used by most, but his harsher vocals are a letdown. Once again, they aren't bad, but they're the same hardcore shouts we've been hearing since Earth Crisis kicked off the whole Metalcore scene.

The second problem can be quite annoying. Tracks such as Primal Human Pain and Angel Maker begin with amazing riffs, but they soon disappear only to never return. While this can be viewed as a good thing as songs are constantly evolving, moving onto new riffs, a crushing breakdown or an epic chorus it can be disappointing to hear something amazing only for it to be gone ten seconds later.

So if you're a fan of any type of Metalcore you have no excuse not to hear this. It's as close to perfection as Melodic Metalcore will ever get. It's a shame that Burn in Silence broke up, who knows what they could've accomplished on a follow up release.

Download: Angel Maker

For fans of: Bleeding Through, Still Remains

(Originally written for Rate Your Music)

Bring Me the Horizon, along with Job for a Cowboy and Suicide Silence, were the leaders of the Deathcore scene. Having formed in 2004, they quickly released their debut EP, "This is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For" in the same year of their formation. Two years later they released "Count Your Blessings", a more Deathcore styled release than the mostly Metalcore sound of their debut EP. Following the release of Count Your Blessings Bring Me the Horizon quickly gained a rapidly expanding fanbase. No band in the Deathcore scene were bigger than they were. However, then they released "Suicide Season".

Suicide Season is quite a big departure from Count Your Blessings. First of all, the whole Deathcore sound has been thrown away and they are now an incredibly mainstream Metalcore band. I'm not sure what inspired the change in sound. I don't know whether Bring Me the Horizon grew bored of the Deathcore scene and wanted to change things with a new, improved sound or if they sold out for the $$$. Though I can tell you this: If they did it for the former then they failed. Big time.

Like I've already said, this album is very mainstream. From the vocals to the general heaviness of the record, everything has been toned down. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to hear tracks from this album on commercial radio. Most songs here are quite catchy and very accessible, perfect for someone looking to get into Metal music. However, this album also sounds dumbed down. Sure, they have somewhat experimented with electronic effects ("Chelsea Smile" for example) and guest vocalists ("Football Season Is Over") but this album is really quite simple.

Let's start with the vocals. Oliver Sykes was never a good vocalist, and it is more obvious on this album than ever before. More or less abandoning his growls for some terrible hybrid of screaming and talking, it was a bad decision. His vocals sound like some angry pissed off riot guy yelling at the government for screwing him over in workplace choices. He's at his worst on "Chelsea Smile" where his vocals (especially during the opening of the song) sound more like rhythmic speaking than singing. He manages to sound pretty pissed off on tracks such as "No Need for Introductions, I've Read About Girls Like You on the Back of Toilet Doors", but it comes at the expense of sounding like he's trying too hard.

The riffs here are quite catchy. Sounding quite simple yet bouncy, it's hard to get the riffs found in "Chelsea Smile" and "It Was Written in Blood" out of your head. However, that's not to say they're good. Almost all of them sound the same, and you could swap one with the other and not really take any notice. They do their job decently enough, but when you listen to other Metalcore bands such as Bleeding Through and Parkway Drive you can't help but feel disappointed with what Bring Me the Horizon have done.

The drumming, well it's nothing great. Pretty standard really. They more or less play along with the guitars and don't really achieve anything interesting. Also, they have the horrible triggered Metalcore sound to them which is really distracting. It just sounds so mechanical. While that sound can work well in bands such as The Amenta, it just sounds horrible here.

I don't even know where to begin with the lyrics. They're everything that is bad about Metalcore. Coming across as ridiculously cheesy and stupid, I strongly recommend you avoid reading them. It's as if Oli is trying to be deep and meaningful, but crap like "We will never sleep 'cos sleep is for the weak" and "We stare at broken clocks, the hands don't turn anymore" is just downright embarrassing. And I won't even bring up the lyrics to "Sleep With One Eye Open", which contains lyrics that would even make I Killed the Prom Queen cringe.

Honestly, there is very little to like in this album. Almost everything here has been done better elsewhere. The vocals are horrible, the guitar work and drumming is average and the songs themselves aren't even memorable. Whether it's the fast paced "No Need for Introductions, I've Read About Girls Like You on the Back of Toilet Doors" or mainstream radio fodder of "Suicide Season", everything here is completely forgettable.

Download: The Comedown

For fans of: Anime Fire, Still Remains

(Originally written for Rate Your Music)

Obviously all bands need to start somewhere, and the majority of the time their first release isn't all that good, but there are some cases where you just can't work out what anyone could possibly see in a release, and if you ask me This Is What the Edge of Your Seat Was Made For is definitely one of those cases. While I could easily name hundreds of things wrong with this album off the top of my head, I don't think I could name a single positive. I might be able to name a few inoffensive things about this album, but nothing good. At least Suicide Season had a few so bad it's good moments (Chelsea Smile anyone?) but this is just horrible.

This Is What the Edge... starts off with "RE: They Had No Reflections". You're greeted with a tonne of pinch harmonics and a spiralling riff played over a breakdown, followed by yet another breakdown only for the spiralling riff to return for a second outing. Oh, and all this happens in the first thirty seconds. So seeing as they'd used two breakdowns already despite the fact we're less than one tenth into the song you'd think we Bring Me the Horizon could wait a bit before busting out another of those infamous chug-chug moments. Well we do get some primal Slaughter of the Soul worship for a solid twenty seconds only to get hit with another breakdown. Then after some more random dicking around with what Bring Me the Horizon would consider pointless riffs, we get greeted with....radio frequencies? Really? All of "RE: They Had No Reflections" is a waste, as the song repeats the same riff and breakdown at least a dozen times over the close to six minute run time of this song. It's generally thought that if you don't have enough material for six minute then you do not write a song that long, though Bring Me the Horizon seem to have missed that lesson.

Things only get worse as the album goes on. "Who Wants Flowers When They're Dead? Nobody" is more or less the first song but with some poorly down gang vocals and Oli using his Suicide Season styled vocals. "Rawwwwrr!!" takes the worst of the opening two tracks and adds in twice as much pinch harmonic whoring. Though the worst is saved for last with "Traitors Never Play Hangman", which is identical to "RE: They Had No Reflections" except for the outro which consists of Sykes screaming nonsense. Fun.

If I had to pick what the biggest problem with album is it wouldn't be the completely stock standard drumming, the incredibly dull riffs or the breakdowns that occur every thirty seconds. No, it would be the vocals. Oli Sykes claims to have learnt how to sing entirely by singing along to records in his room, and it shows. I have never before heard such weak screaming. If I had to compare it to something it would be that of a ten year old girl who just stubbed her toe. He really has not a single bit of power. Then you have his growls, which I would compare to that of a novice vocalist with a throat infection. Though his hardcore shouts really do take out the award of being worst on show. Not only does he not seem to be able to decide whether to scream or shout, he also does so with so little care. If this were a televised situation you can be sure he'd be standing there reading all his lines off a cue card while eyeing the clock, just waiting to go home.

So there is not a single redeeming thing on this album. The only pros are that the songs get shorter as they go on and that they didn't include the fifth track that was originally meant to appear. Terrible even by Bring Me the Horizon's standards, out of all the albums released in 2004 this is the one that deserves to be forgotten.

Download: Declaration by Bleeding Through

For fans of: Architects, Antagonist A.D.

(Originally written for Rate Your Music)

The biggest disappointment of the year? Well no, that would go to "Deflorate" by The Black Dahlia Murder, but this album comes a very close second. After the mixed reception that "The Apostasy" received, I was told by Behemoth fans that is a return to form and one of the greatest albums they've recorded yet. That would be true if this album stopped after the track "Transmigrating Beyond Relams ov Amenti", but this album doesn't, and that's what seals this albums fate as just another average release.

Anyway, just like the last few Behemoth albums this is technical and brutal Blackened Death Metal. There's nothing new to be heard here, just solid Behemoth. The album kicks off with "Daimonos". Beginning with what sounds like an audio clip left off the latest Karl Sanders release, the actual song soon kicks in with some double bass drumming and guitar work very similar to that found on a Nile album. It's not long until you've reached the peak of the album, "Ov Fire and the Void". Starting off with some amazing drumming and guitar work that's firmly in synch with each other, the song quickly descends into one of the most epic tracks Behemoth have recorded. This is the type of song you'd play while your army is marching into battle.

However, after track four, "Transmigrating Beyond Realms ov Amenti", the album quickly becomes nothing but bland and faceless Blackened Death Metal. There's nothing all that bad about tracks such as "He Who Breeds Pestilence" or "Alas, Lord Is Upon Me", but there's nothing to really praise about them either. Tracks five through eight just sound like the first four tracks recycled and shuffled about. The huge dip in quality wouldn't be so noticeable if these tracks weren't lumped together. If they were mixed with the better opening tracks then the album would have flowed better as there'd be no massive dip in quality, but they aren't, which is one of the biggest problems with "Evangelion".

That being said, the album does go out on a very high note. The final track, "Lucifer", is an absolute monster of a song. Eerie, creepy, intense and epic are just a few of the words you could use to describe this track. Fusing doom elements with Behemoths trademark sound, this is the most unique track on the album.

Now even though this album contains some great riffing and outstanding drumming, one of the problems with it are the vocals. Nergal's vocals are decent, but he lacks any real range and his vocals can become very tiring. His voice is fairly unique, sounding like a roar instead of full on growling, but the tone of his voice barely changes throughout the whole album.

So it's a shame that I can only give this an album an average rating. It starts off great, but pacing problems and repetitive vocals really hurt "Evangelion". I strongly suggest you stick with Behemoths earlier albums.

Download: Ov Fire and the Void

For fans of: Akercocke, Nile

(Originally written for Rate Your Music)

So by now you should all know who Austrian Death Machine are. If not, Austrian Death Machine is a novelty Thrash Metal side-project of Tim Lambesis (vocalist of As I Lay Dying). Anyway, this is Austrian Death Machine's second release for 2008 (their first being their underrated debut, Total Brutal). Anyway, this is a mostly unnecessary release, as it contains only one unreleased song (a cover of Jingle Bells), a track off their debut (Get to the Choppa) and an unreleased at the time cover of Judas Priest' Hell Bent for Leather (now available on Double Brutal).

Anyway, the album starts off with Jingle Bells. This is the highlight of the album. The chorus is awesome, with Lambesis yelling and growling "Jingle all the way". However, the song fails when it comes to the verses. The song swaps to Arnold Schwarzenegger (voiced by Chad Ackerman) talking about how Santa should loose weight or else there will be no cookies for him. It seems out of the place and those parts should've been swapped for something similar to the faster paced chorus. I'd like to note the awesome guitar solo which perfectly captures the sound of Christmas and Thrash Metal. Fuckin' awesome.

The second track, Get to the Choppa was the highlight of Total Brutal and it's still just as awesome here. It contains a great riff, awesome (catchy) chorus and a kick ass solo. However, the song is letdown by the random breakdown at the end of the song. It's out of place and it really shouldn't be there.

The last track is a huge letdown. While the two previous tracks are awesome, Hell Bent for Leather is goddamn awful. It has an epic guitar solo, but it contains some terrible clean vocals in which Tim Lambesis tries to imitate Rob Halford and fails miserably. Throw in a lot of chugging guitars and a what the fuck? moment near the end when some guy pretending to be a chicken starts singing.

So overall this release is quite pointless. If you have both Total Brutal and Double Brutal then don't even bother with this. But if you don't, then this is worthy of the one dollar it goes for on Amazon.

Download: Jingle Bells

For fans of: Municipal Waste, Santa Claus

(Originally written for Rate Your Music)