After four years of steadily growing and growing as a band through The Union Of Crowns and Runes, one senses that 2016 is THE make or break year for Bury Tomorrow. Can their new album Earthbound help to elevate them to the same level as some of their peers (notably Architects, after the suggest of Lost Forever // Lost Together) or even beyond. Let’s dive in and find out.
Opener The Eternal sets the tone immediately with both the riff work and Dan Winter-Bates vocals carrying far greater aggression than on anything from previous album Runes. Indeed, some of the screeches are bordering on death metal territory, yet this is balanced out in the chorus by Jason Cameron’s soaring clean vocals, which seem to have improved once again.
The singles released from Earthbound have all made hugely positive impressions, and rightly so. Last Light (with it’s very impressive music video) sits astride the boundary of heavy and melodic perfectly, while the title track hooks the listener from the first bar with it’s earworm of a main riff dissolving into another vocal huge assault from Daniel W-B.
Moving through the album, tracks like Cemetary have a grittier, heavier feel to them than Bury Tomorrow fans may be used to but it suits them very well. The Burden is on the verge of veering into Melodeath territory at times, while a guest turn from Hatebreed’s legendary frontman Jamey Jasta on 301 will give listeners little doubt over the direction that song takes, in a very enjoyable fashion. The standout track across the whole album is Memories, which seamlessly blends the melodic and heavy elements of Bury Tomorrow’s sound into four minutes of punishing breakdowns, monstrous riffs and a chorus so big it demands to be sung by audiences in very large venues.
Whilst Bury Tomorrow have always been impressive musicians, everything this time around seems to pack a greater impact. The rhythm section of Adam Jackson aka Jacko and Davyd Winter-Bates has never sounded tighter while the twin guitar assault of Jason Cameron and Kristan Dawson seem to have spent time at the Dimebag Darrell school of riffs. Dan Winter-Bates as previously stated has also upped his game considerably, and he leaves the listener in no doubt that he means every single word with his punishing delivery across the album.
Overall, Earthbound is an absolutely stunning piece of work from Bury Tomorrow. An album packed with great songs, it is a huge statement of intent that Bury Tomorrow have served on the UK metal world and beyond. Bury Tomorrow are sounding better than ever, and this time there should be no stopping them.
Earthbound is released on the 29th of January through Nuclear Blast Records.
