Burden of Grief
Unchained

Burden of Grief are back, more unchained than ever with their sixth album. They have focused their strengths into nine or ten hell raising riff monsters. The nine or ten is dependant on if you buy the digipak or not. And this is done to celebrate the big twenty since the band’s inception, and they do have a cover song to end it all just like they had a bonus cover disc by the last album which saw light of day four years ago. This time as before the cover is built around the logo this time in smoke, perhaps from the fire on the latest album. So what about this celebrative album? what does it offer?

It offers a similar sound as its previous album, melodic thrash metal with death metal infusions. Built more on the heavy metal premise than the more traditional extreme kind. Melodies are in focus but so is the raw heaviness, the use of hammonds are also interesting and the vocalist is the same raspy guy as before, at least I think so. The production is very good, the sound is heavy yet melodic and they have managed to sound like a controlled aggression, I like that kind of sound. The vocalist is less good though. The variation and playing time is pretty okay, the album is fairly short at 40 minutes (48 with the bonus tracks of the digipak) and the variation is sufficient.

I think this album is good, it has good songs and it is solid all the way through. No weaknesses, I like it a fair bit. Even though I like it, I think it is lacking something. I guess it is missing a hit song, that focal point that makes a good album a great one. It has one, Neon Knights, the ending cover song if you buy the digipak version of the album which contains the two bonus tracks. But this isn’t the band’s own song, and it isn’t in a regular version of the album so it doesn’t really count. The band’s own songs are good but none stands out, which is a shame.

It feels a bit like this album doesn’t quite take off, it is like it is chained to something and not as unchained as the title seem to indicate. But for any fan of Burden of Grief or melodic thrashy metal I am quite sure that this album will do it for you. For the rest of us though, I would have liked something a little more unchained, something a bit less cautiously approached would have been really exciting. So as much as I like this album and this band, their albums doesn’t quite deliver what they seem to promise. Nevertheless, it is a good 48 minutes of entertainment if you have nothing else to do.

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