Hmm. English lyrics, eh? Okay then, these guys will do. They sing in English and it helps that they’re the top of some nobody’s Best German Metal Bands list, so they must be at least half decent. The only thing that concerns me is their subgenre, which is described as "melodic death metal”. The last band of that type I listened to was Carcass, and there was nothing melodious about them! However, we’ll see. In existence since 1994 and with six albums to their credit, Burden of Grief hail from Westphalia, north of the Rhine, and seem to share a love of and respect for Slayer, Metallica and Maiden, so there’s some hope.
Death end road --- Burden of Grief ---2007 (Remedy Records)
I have no idea which is their best album, so I’m choosing this one purely on the basis of the name, and also that the previous one from Rammstein was released in 2004, so I want to avoid reviewing another album from the same year, otherwise I might have looked at “Fields of salvation”, which I was looking at first. But this is the one I’ve chosen, so off we go.
The opener --- and title track --- is an instrumental, so I don’t yet know what sort of vocals we’re going to be dealing with, but the guitar work is pretty good. It’s a short track and leads into “Vita reducta”, a harder, faster song and the vocals are those shouty, screamy ones I don’t like, but I’m going to try not to let them ruin the album for me. Just my luck to get an album sung in English when I can’t understand the vocals!
Checking out the lyrics, I see this song is apparently about someone being buried alive. Nice. Guess we’re looking at some Doom Metal influences here, at least in the songwriting.
“Swallow the sun”, another cheerful title, does at least bounce along nicely with the guitar of Johannes Rudolph and Philip Hanfland to the fore, while vocalist Mike Huhmann is at least discernible, even if his vocals are very raw and raspy. Good overall melody to the song, and at least this time the term “melodic death metal” would appear to be deserved. Without the growly singing I could almost see this as a harder form of progressive metal to be honest. It’s not blindingly fast, there’s not so much emphasis on shredding as there is on “proper” playing, and the songs generally seem to be well constructed. Which is not to say that other melodic or even pure death metal bands do not put a lot of effort and thought into their music --- I’m sure they do. It’s just I can usually not follow it, the speed being too much for me.
The guitar attack continues and intensifies in “The game”, on which drummer Sebastian Robrecht really lets loose, and “Running scared” keeps the tempo high with the Duracell Bunny -- sorry, Herr Robrecht! --- still going strong, perhaps unaware the previous song has ended. Okay, let’s check back in on the lyrics and see what’s going on. I see, despite the seemingly bleak nihilistic title, “Swallow the sun” is in fact a rage against the injustices in the world ---
”I ask myself why/ Why there's so much pain and rancor /Why there's war and poverty outside today?” --- while “The game” details the things one has to go through just to survive from day to day, and this track again reflects a sense of hopelessness mixed with the desperation to survive.
There’s no need for deep interpretation of the lyrics to “The killer in me” though, and it’s a pretty hard and fast fretfest with bombastic drums, the speed of the track edging into Slayer territory at times. “Drown in sorrow” seems to follow on from that, with the killer waking up the morning after and trying to come to terms with what he has done.
”What can I do?” he asks,
”What have I done?/ Is it just a joke/ Or have I killed someone?” More back on the lines of traditional metal this, with a big slice of Maiden in the song, perhaps even referencing the last line in “Killers”. Powerful stuff, even though we learn at the end that the guy is no killer, that this is just a bad dream.. There’s even an extended guitar passage here again reminiscent of Murray/Smith, yet no real solos. I don’t know if that’s something endemic to melodic death metal, but I’ve yet to hear a proper solo, and wonder if I will.
Another song that leaves you in no doubt as to what it’s about is “Schizophrenic”, with a big, tortured roar from Huhmann and another galloping beat. I’d like to say the BoG singer puts in a great performance as the man torn in two by conflicting personalities, and he probably does, but his usual vocal style just persists through this track so it’s hard to award him any extra points. Oh look! There’s a solo finally! Nice too. Worth waiting for, even if it does come at the end of the song. Now personally I find a song title like “Passion of the night” slightly incongruous here, but never fear! It’s no ballad (not sure Burden of Grief do ballads) and follows the basic format of their songs so far, most of which, while decent, have seemed quite similar to me, not much in the way of variety.
See, the problem is that in this penultimate track Huhmann is speaking in the persona, it would seem, of Satan, and yet he uses the very same voice for the schizo in the track before that. Now if you’re going to play the Evil One, shouldn’t you make your performance just a little darker, more evil, scarier? But there’s little or no difference between the two. “Road of visions” wraps things up --- you know, I’ve just now got the pun in the album title! --- and it’s basically more of the same, though the guitar is a little more restrained at times. But not that much.
TRACKLISTING
1. Death end road (intro)
2. Vita reducta
3. Swallow the sun
4. The game
5. Running scared
6. The killer in me
7. Drown in sorrow
8. Schizophrene
9. Passion of the night
10. Road of visions
Yeah, this really isn’t for me. I’m sure Burden of Grief are great at what they do and all, but this sort of music is never going to be my cup of tea. Mind you, as melodic death metal goes it’s far better than Carcass, but then that wouldn’t be hard. I guess you need to be into this sort of subgenre to appreciate nuances in the music and vocals I’m not hearing, but if they’re there they escape me. As it happens, there are two extra tracks on the album, but they’re remixes of songs off their debut, and as such I have no real interest in hearing them.
Bit of a disappointment, given that at least one person in the world cites them as the best German Metal band ever, but then, taste is subjective of course, and Burden of Grief are definitely not to mine. But if you like this sort of thing, they could be to yours.