Bury Tomorrow - Black Flame

Bury Tomorrow were one of Nuclear Blast’s up-and-coming metalcore signings back in 2012 after a tumultuous launch from their relatively well-received (by the small publicatuons that picked up on it) debut album left them somewhat stranded in the music industry’s cold waters. The band weren’t ever really able to advance much further in terms of numbers beyond what they had already done on Portraits, and after three rather nonexplosive albums for Nuclear Blast, they now release their first under their new label, Music for Nations, and while my first impression of it wasn’t great, it has grown on me and I have been able to appreciate it for its steadfastness in metalcore’s golden years.
Black Flame is an album that displays the band’s now-experienced chops deeply within the vein of mid-2000’s metalcore with a tinge of Swedish melodeath and the alternative metal of that time as well. While those genres are well-explored and ruled over by the likes of Killswitch and the legacy of the recently and unexpectedly reunited As I Lay Dying, many of those bands that helped put the genre on the map are abandoning it for what Bring Me the Horizon have started doing with their music lately (a trend I keep venting my frustrations with when it comes up).
Bury Tomorrow, on the other hand seem keen to anchor the style in its not-that-old roots, a move which probably seems “immature” to the publications that plug the likes of Five Finger Death Punch and Asking Alexandria. But honestly, I’ve enjoyed this meager effort more than anything coming from that wave of uninspired radio rock. The band take a very distinctly mid-2000’s alt. metal approach to the blending of clean and harsh vocals in their melodic style of metalcore. It mostly works out satisfactorily, but only a few times do the melodies carry any real weight for the songs, as do the instrumental parts. Competent, nonetheless, but still not written interestingly or powerfully enough to really raise them to the upper echelons of metalcore.
The band show their competence with metalcore on songs like “Stormbringer” and “No Less Violent”, but many of the songs still feel like they need just a bit more push to really seal the deal. “Knife of Gold” probably captures the best clean vocal melody of the whole album, but songs like “The Age” and “Peacekeeper” are shakier on the melodic and compositional fronts and show that the band still has some work to do to really perfect their sound.
Overall I’d say Black Flame has more going for it than against it, most of it appearing at the front half of the record, but it still paints a picture of a band that still needs to push itself to really make a difference in their genre. Still, after hearing this band again, I can say I’m glad to hear someone keeping the fire lit for metalcore’s golden days (as divisive as they were) in the face of the falling of so many of its heroes from grace.

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