BURY YOUR DEAD „Cover Your Tracks”

Music: Metalcore
Duration: 31.12 (12 songs)


Cool songs: Magnolia, Mission Impossible 2, Risky Business, The Color of Money, Vanilla Sky
Website: www.buryyourdead.com

Before I’ve even heard a note from New England metalcore act Bury Your Dead, the instant visual impression that this band makes is very positive. The violently suggestive cover art, their slick Thirties gangster style fashion image and professional packaging had me won in a blink. Initial impressions count for a hell of a lot folks and visually, at the very least, Bury your Dead have put some thoughtful originality into their image marketing. Alas, their musical stance doesn’t carry near as much weight.

Formed by ex-Harmartia members Slim-B (also Grr in Blood Has Been Shed) and Mark Castillo (also Drr in Between the Buried and Me), Bury Your Dead play a rather generic brand of hardcore/metalcore crossover; thick on the chugging riffs and thin on the melodies, think Hatebreed and Throwdown and you’re on the money here. Problem is these guys don’t have the style or the song writing smarts of either of those two acts. That’s not to say that BYD don’t have merit. They’re an extremely competent act and there’s no denying that ‘Cover Your Tracks’ is a rather unrelenting slab of moshcore aggro. However, the fact remains – Bury Your Dead do nothing remotely new for this style of music. They have written a solid, if slightly unspectacular set of tracks on this disc. And for a scene that is just about beyond saturation, it’s hard to see this getting anything more than a small but loyal following.

With a rather strange and stifled drum production (Matthew Ellard – Converge and Between the Buried..) and a less than convincing vocalist in Mat Bruso ( and I make no apologies that Jamey Jasta has forced all comers to step up to his plate) ‘Cover Your Tracks’ isn’t quite the hard edge product it could have been. A restriction on melody in their song writing also makes the twelve songs appear as a seamless blur by about half way through. At least the band doesn’t overstay their welcome length wise, as this is done and dusted in 31 minutes.

Bury Your Dead have some obvious potential. Their stovepipe suit image is quite smart and not in keeping with their typical hardcore tough-guy musical stance. I’m sure these guys will go down a storm in the live setting, however on record they’re not quite there just yet. Oh, one last thing…the gimmick in naming each of the 12 songs after a Tom Cruise movie is kind of lame. Make it Sam Rami films next time.

note: 7.0/10

Tracklist

1.Top Gun
2.Vanilla Sky
3.Mission: Impossible
4.Eyes Wide Shut
5.Magnolia
6.The Outsiders
7.Mission: Impossible 2
8.The Color of Money
9.Risky Business
10.Legend
11.All the Right Moves
12.Losin’ It