Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Burial - The Winepress


I've spoken very highly of the Facedown Records family this year (Facedown, Strike First, and Dreamt Music). With minor exceptions, every album they've released this year has been awesome. But at what point do I grow tired of christian metal? Well it's not today and it's not with the Burial's Strike First records debut, The Winepress.

The Winepress is less death metal than I was expecting. Which is good because I wasn't ready to hear another deathcore record. My ears just couldn't take it. But The Winepress is a very solid metal album. Not as technical as some of their peers (As Hell Retreats) but it doesn't need to be. The Burial have concentrated on writing good songs and have delivered a strong debut.

The first track, Intercessor, has a nice hardcore feel to it, really old school. It kicks into Demons Never Sleep, a nice trash track. The WInepress overall has a real old school metalcore feel to it. Think along the lines of Symphony in Peril. There are breakdowns a plenty but they aren't overbearing and don't draw attention to themselves. The Winepress does fall into certain (bad) metal trends. The very middle of the record is your, standard, low key instrumental track. It draws you out of the flow of the record and Valley of Decision isn't an interesting song. It drags and is just a lull in the record that doesn't need to be there.

But the record ends strong. Delegation of the Seven Plagues is another really good song that has a nice old school hardcore/modern death metal feel (its odd, I know). Monolith and Death, Conquered are probably the best tracks on the record, giving it a great ending. I don't really like how Death, Conquered just fades to a close, making the impact less strong but it doesn't hurt the track.

Just more solid metal from Strike First records.

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