Leave No Ashes is the latest album from Burning Brides. After their debut album Fall Of The Plastic Empire, Burning Brides comes back [with] its second album – the end result is the often misunderstood genre of alternative rock. Or maybe I just don’t understand the genre.
The problem with alternative rock is that there shouldn’t really be a median between alternative and rock. Both are its own genre, and the mixture more often than not becomes a mess of loud guitars, upset drums and compressed vocals. And that’s what we have here with Leave No Ashes.
“King Of The Demimond” is what the album really should be. The hard guitars, gloomy drums and frenzied vocals say that the band is rock. But then the band follows up the song with “Century Song” that reminds me more of a garage band than a rock band. A rock title should never be called “Century Song,” nor have the word song in it. The mix of the songs don’t work. Some are rock, some are alternative, and others are so confused I don’t think they know what they are.
“Vampire Waltz” is the only success that the band has mixing the two genres. The words are ballad-esque, and the end can’t be described as anything but haunting. It’s reminiscent of Aerosmith’s “Crying” and “Crazy” but depending on your devotion to any music that’s not pop or rap played on MTV, you should be wary.
The songs aren’t really bad, they just don’t belong next to each other. Burning Brides could have cut this album in half, released one as an alternative album and one as a rock album, and it would have worked better. It’s hard to pump yourself to electric guitars and pulsating drumbeats when the vocals and lyrics sound fragile. “From You” plays like a song that someone would sing auditioning for American Idol.
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Track list:
- Heart Full Of Black
- Come Alive
- Alternative Teenage Suicide
- King Of The Demimonde
- Century Song
- Dance With The Devil
- Leave No Ashes
- To Kill A Swan
- Pleasure In The Pain
- From You
- Last Man Standing
- Vampire Waltz
NOTE: Article originally posted on Blogcritics.