Another year, another Summer Slaughter tour with the best lineup in years.
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After the Burial's Justin Lowe performs a song off their latest release, 2013's "Wolves Within", and also explains his experience with the new Ibanez RG90BKP 9-string electric guitar.
CHON, the instrumental four-piece who are on tour with Animals As Leaders, After The Burial, and Navene-K, are streaming their new EP below.
Animals As Leaders have announced their headline album release tour! It kicks off this Feb / March with After The Burial, Navene-k & CHON. More dates will be added
After The Burial are one of those bands which you aren't quite sure what type of music they're meant to be. One minute they're playing Melodic Metalcore, the next they're a strange mix between Melodic Death Metal and Technical Metalcore. Although catergorized into the Metalcore genre, After The Burial are still one of the more versatile bands around, producing nothing short of hard-hitting slabs of progressive, melodic and interesting Metal. This is a band which takes the best of standard Metal genres and of the Core genres and blends them together. 'Wolves Within' is the bands fourth studio album (5th if you want to include their E.P) and nine tracks packed with Metal goodness. 'Wolves Within' is probably the most interesting and unique Metalcore album of the year, featuring so many different elements from other forms of Metal and being able to blend it all effectively together.
The nine track affair begins with 'Anti-Pattern'. This song immediately cuts out any nonsense and just gets straight on with it. It has a creepy and daunting build up that kicks into some fine chugs. It's strange to go from creepy, melodic intros into chug-chug riffs but yet After The Burial make it seem like a match made in heaven. There is the perfect balance between heaviness and melody to keep the song interesting and exciting. Although this sets the template up for the album, don't be fooled into expecting the formula being the same throughout every song. Every song has something new to offer, making it a consistent, exciting and often mind-blowing album. The album moves into Technical Metalcore-meets-Melodic Death Metal track 'Of Fearful Men'. Lasting nearly four and a half minutes, this track has the excellent riffs, hints of technicality, the melodies, the progressive side of Metal, the solos and, of course, the chugs.
All of this crammed into a song that isn't even four and a half minutes in length is a huge challenge but the track goes on so flawlessly, creating the perfect balance. It's everything a modern Metal band should be aiming for. The next few tracks, 'Pennyweight', 'Disconnect', 'Nine Summers', 'Virga', 'Neo Seoul' and 'Parise', are all heavy hitters. Songs here range from Sylosis-styled Melo-Prog-Thrash-Death to Metalcore-Power Metal crossovers, creating an epic album that doesn't fail to deliver. Final track, 'A Wolf Amongst Ravens', starts with a sense of hauntingly beautiful atmosphere before going into chugs, under-lined with atmospheric melodies. The rest of the track speaks for itself... In terms of musicianship, this album proves that the band are versatile whilst still remaining faithful to the Metalcore roots wedged deep into their DNA. The bass on the album is intense and always present, helping to beef up the album. It has fast parts, melodies and even some technical parts, keeping the bass-lines interesting. The guitar work is insane, with serious amounts of time being spent to help make the riffs, breakdowns and solos as versatile as possible whilst still remaining within the confines of the Metalcore sub-genre.
They are the what adds the atmosphere, the crunchiness and the melody to the entire album, forcing it's listeners to keep on listening. The drumming is what provides the back bone of the album. Instead of trying to astonish us with blast-beats or three-hundred beats-per-minute double bass pedals, the drumming is planned, fitting perfectly with every track. It helps to provide the constant, often infectious, sense of groove and melody that dominate throughout the album. As for vocals, they seem similar to the vocals of Lamb Of God's Randy Blythe, yet with a bit more added bite to it. The vocal performance is terrific and is something for any vocalist to admire.
After a long year in the music scene, it has been rare that a Metalcore has really grabbed me in ways I never thought were possible. However, with 'Wolves Within', After The Burial not only grabbed me, they took me on a lesson on how to create a quality, versatile Metal album. With the amount of albums released this year, it is astonishing to think how amazing this album is compared to most other recent releases. With an intense sound, progression, technicality and melody dominating on every track and a feeling of brutal, haunting atmosphere, After The Burial have crafted the perfect Metalcore album in recent years, making this a triumph for the band. If you're a fan, you'll love this. However, if you've never listened to them but love Metal, than I recommend you do. Don't let the Metalcore tag fool you, there is so much more to this album than meets the eye. Surprising, mesmerizing, refreshing.
10/10
- Asa
South By So What added a few more bands to their scene fest. It's worth noting that Taking Back Sunday and The Used are playing this fest, further validating their heavily rumored Taste of Chaos appearance. Not mention, Chiodos are also playing the same day as well.
Friday
Taking Back Sunday
The Used
Chiodos
I See Stars
Atlas Moth
Avion Roe
Bleach Blonde
Bryce Gilbertson
Dear You
Fever Dreamer
Gideon
Hrvrd
Ice Nine Kills
Mike Mains & The Branches
Scale The Summit
Silver Snakes
Sworn In
The Bunny The Bear
The Ocean
Saturday
Mindless Self Indulgence
Adestria
Alesana
Close To Home
Even The Dead Love A Parade
Famous Last Words
Hearts & Hands
Hed Pe
Indirections
Megosh
Oceano
Psychostick
Throw The Fight
Wolves At The Gate
Sunday
The Devil Wears Prada
The Story So Far
The Ghost Inside
Periphery
After The Burial
Born Of Osiris
Danger Kids
Handguns
I Killed The Prom Queen
Mychildren Mybride
Polyphia
Rescuer
Sleeping Giant
Years Since The Storm
After The Burial have returned with what is being hailed as their career defining album, Wolves Within, which is now set for a Dec 17th release. It’s been three years since the band has released any new material, but upon first listen it’s very evident that it’s been well worth the wait. The tech wizardry is amped way up, the breakdowns are massive and face melting and the vocal delivery is the most devastating yet. Already lauded for their technically impressive yet well structured style of songwriting, AFTER THE BURIAL certainly takes things up a notch or two with this newest outing.
AFTER THE BURIAL has also re-signed with longtime label Sumerian Records and will hit the road across North America this week with DevilDriver and Trivium. A brand new AFTER THE BURIAL track, “A Wolf Amongst Ravens,” can be heard now at the link below and be sure to visit www.facebook.com/aftertheburial to view all tourdates.
The second leg of dates for Trivium, DevilDriver, After The Burial & Thy Will Be Done have just been announced! Check them out below
11/05 Seattle, WA – Showbox at the Market
11/06 Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
11/07 Reno, NV – Knitting Factory
11/08 Salt Lake City, UT – In the Venue
11/09 Grand Junction, CO – Mesa Theater & Club
11/11 Lawrence, KS – Granada
11/12 Des Moines, IA – Wooly’s
11/13 Lincoln, NE – Bourbon Theater
11/15 Lexington, KY – Expo Five
11/16 Sauget, IL – Pop’s Nightclub
11/18 Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
11/19 New Orleans, LA – House of Blues
11/21 Pensacola, FL – Vinyl Music Hall
11/22 Jacksonville, FL – Freebird Live
11/23 Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room
11/24 Orlando, FL – House of Blues
11/26 Nashville, TN – Exit/In
11/27 Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
11/29 Clifton Park, NY – Upstate Concert Hall
12/01 Norfolk, VA – The NorVa
12/04 Buffalo, NY – The Town Ballroom
12/05 Grand Rapids, MI – The Intersection
12/06 Ft. Wayne, IN – Piere’s
12/07 Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
12/08 Chicago, IL – House of Blues
12/10 Dallas, TX – House of Blues – Cambridge Room
12/11 San Antonio, TX – White Rabbit
12/13 Phoenix, AZ – Marquee Theater
12/14 San Diego, CA – Soma
Brad from The New Fury joins me once again as we discuss new releases, upcoming tours, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and more. Past episodes can be found here. If you like the podcast, write a 5-star review for it and subscribe on iTunes.
Daniel McBride, in-house graphic designer for Sumerian Records talks about his work, and what’s it like seeing album covers he’s created on t-shirts. Past episodes can be found here. We are also on Stitcher.