It’s hard what to make of Yorkshires Burst Rondo. On one hand you have the heavy hardcore/metal sound, on the other some of the shittiest set of tracks and vocals I have heard in a long time. The press release claims the sound to be ‘innovative and diverse’, but the only diversity I have seen over the course of the 46 minutes is that of vocalist Alex Croft whose range is admittedly quite impressive. He veers between soulful slurs to manic screams in a split second, but while he has many different types of vocal patterns in his locker, he has mastered little and the result is a contrived Americanised sound that ruins almost every track.
The key to fixing this problem may lay in getting the various guitarists to do more vocal work and even take away some of Croft’s sections of songs. Yes, you can do different styles, but don’t lynch the listener with all of them in the space of 2 minutes. In the bands defense though, some of the music is superb. Many of the introductions to the tracks are crafted brilliantly and give an adrenaline shot to the ears as the pounding guitars and superb drumming from Lee Vincent set the tone for what is to come. Opener ‘This City‘ starts it well enough, while a break neck beginning to ‘Michelle Sinclair’ shows the undeniable talent the five-piece hold. There is little that stands out from anything else on offer though but for a track tucked away towards the end by the name of ‘Still Got It’. With a tidy jazzy/funky edge it proves all is not lost within the world of Burst Rondo and that the relative mess created can be saved.
The first few listens of ‘As Shadows’ proved fairly enjoyable, but upon repeat listens the little annoyances I have mentioned become more prevalent and it proves virtually unlistenable as time goes on. The guitars are crashing, the drums are tumbling, but for 45 minutes the album sounds a disjointed mess and when the voice of the band helps to eradicate any enjoyment from the album, you know all isn’t what it should be.
Jay
www.burstrondo.co.uk