After The Burial

Roy Orbison must be rolling in his grave. At the tail end of what is proving to be a very disappointing year for metalcore, the once promising After the Burial have all but thrown the towel in with this uninspired parade of mediocrity. In an attempt to cash in on as many trends as possible, the band have opted to record a couple of songs in their standard Meshuggah meets Necrophagist gone brocore style (albeit considerably simplified), a couple that sound like All That Remains, one or two that sound disturbingly like Bury Your Dead's recent turd and a couple of straight-up, generic nu metal songs for the hell of it. Fans of Rareform, be very afraid. Naysayers, don't even bother. Casual fans of the genre looking for some filler between now and the next Atreyu record, handle with caution. This is such a drastic transition for an already only passable band that, by releasing it, they are essentially going for broke: either they'll plough into a whole new sales bracket or they will permanently lose their old fans and not make any new ones. The risk is theirs to take, but when you have a leg up on similar, but more generic, acts like Born of Osiris or Veil of Maya, why not exploit it and write something worthwhile? Instead, after this burial there won't be anyone hanging around paying their respects besides the shady record label exec a few headstones away clutching a Soundscan printout and a bag of jewels.