Bury Tomorrow - "Portraits" CD Review (Artery Recordings)

Southampton’s Bury Tomorrow hit the national press with their 2007 EP “The Sleep of the Innocents” and a tour with Bring Me the Horizon. The band recently signed to Artery Recordings and their full-length debut, Portraits, was released in the US last month.

Portraits is a “buy-the-books” metalcore album that follows in the vein of US bands like Haste the Day and Killswitch Engage. The band combines rhythm guitarist Jason Cameron’s clean vocals with vocalist Dani Winter-Bates’ hoarse growls over a melodic verse / chorus / breakdown song structure. While this release doesn’t break any new ground, it is surprisingly catchy.

Bury Tomorrow’s strength is the individual vocal strength and interplay between the band’s two vocalists. Jason Cameron has a strong emotive voice that is able to rise above the emo-stylings of other clean vocalists in the genre and Dani Winter-Bates also has more power and range than the stereotypical growler. Two of the disc’s standout tracks (the first single “You and I” and the holdover from the first EP “The Woods Aren’t Safe For Us”) should give you an indication as to what the rest of the disc sounds like. The only exception from the band's core sound is the one ballad on the disc, "Relief". While I'm not much on ballads (including this one), Jason's vocal range and strength is enough to keep me from hitting the "skip" button.





Here are Bury Tomorrow's upcoming tour dates:

Apr. 13, 2010 -- Cockpit w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Leeds
Apr. 14, 2010 -- The Rescue Rooms w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Nottingham
Apr. 16, 2010 -- O2 Academy Islington w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, London
Apr. 17, 2010 -- Birmingham O2 Academy w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Birmingham
Apr. 18, 2010 -- Academy 2 w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Manchester
Apr. 19, 2010 -- King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Glasgow
Apr. 20, 2010 -- The Masque w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Liverpool
Apr. 21, 2010 -- Arts Centre w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Colchester
Apr. 22, 2010 -- Melkweg w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Emarosa, Amsterdam
Apr. 24, 2010 -- Conne Island w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Emarosa, Leipzig
Apr. 25, 2010 -- Matix w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Emarosa, Bochum
Apr. 27, 2010 -- Abart w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Emarosa, Zurich
Apr. 29, 2010 -- Razzmatazz 2 w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Emarosa, Barcelona
Apr. 30, 2010 -- Sala La Riviera Madrid w/ Alesana, A Skylit Drive, Emarosa, Madrid

Links:
Bury Tomorrow

Roadrunner United: The Concert DVD Review (Roadrunner Records)

After a three year wait, Roadrunner Records recently released a 2-DVD set of their 25th Anniversary concert. The show was filmed live at the Nokia Theater in December 2005 and it featured a "who's who" lineup of metal act. There were even a few non-Roadrunner acts (Scott Ian [Anthrax] and Tim "Ripper" Owens" [Judas Priest, Iced Earth, etc.] who were part of the lineup.

It is obvious that a lot of thought went into the planning for this show as the lineup and one-off combinations of artists are unlikely to be repeated. The core band for the show was Dino (from Fear Factor and Divine Heresy), Adam (from Killswitch Engage), Roy (from Stone Sour) and Andreas (from Sepultura).

The show starts with Evan and Billy (from Biohazard) playing a straight-forward version of "Punishment". After this, things start to get going with Jamey Jasta taking the vocals on Madball's "Set It Off". From there, Keith Caputo comes out to sing on "March of the S.O.D." and "River Runs Red". I'm not biased because Keith is from Brooklyn but he has to be one of the most underrated vocalists on the metal scene as he really kills it during this concert. In addition to singing the above mentioned songs, he also takes lead vocals for Roadrunner United's "Tired and Lonely" and Stone Sour's "Bother" (accompanied by Corey on acoustic guitar).

It just gets better from here. "Ripper" Owens sings King Diamond's parts on both a Mercyful Fate and a King Diamond cover. Glen Benton sings both an Obituary cover and a Deicide song and he sings the later song in a full suit of armor. This is followed by Jesse Leach reuniting with Killswitch Engage and he and Howard trade off vocals on "My Last Serenade".

Toward the later part of the show, there is a drunken cover of Soulfly's "Eye for An Eye" by Shadows Fall vocalist Brian Farr which is followed by Rob Flynn taking the mic for Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist". Rob keeps the stage and sings on covers of Slipknot's "Surfacing" and Machine Head's "Davidian". The later is kind of cool as it features a reunion with guitarist Logan Mader. Following in this Sepultura/Cavalera family vein, the show wraps up with a cover of Sepultura's "Roots Bloody Roots".

The second disc in the set is more of a retrospective than a documentary. The 75 minute film features interviews with a number of bands that played the show who are seeing the concert DVD for the first time and reflecting back on that night. This disc runs a little long but it is nice to have this one to hear both how the concert came together and memories of the show.

This DVD set raises the bar for concert DVDs that follow. Any metalhead is going to want to have this one in their collection.

Links:
Roadrunner Records

New CD/DVD Releases for this Week

There are a couple of interesting releases this week:

Angels of Light - We Are Him
The latest release from Michael Gira's post-Swans band. I've loved all of the past Angels releases and the early press on the release has given it great reviews.

"We Are Him is the most assured and relaxed Angels of Light album since the debut, and deserves to be considered alongside Gira's highest peaks. The frightening rage of old Swans surfaces several times, albeit in more bucolic clothing; the contrast is bracing. Lyrically Gira's constantly in-pocket, addressing his subjects with renewed agility, but also in a very relaxed voice; if De Sade had lived long enough to tell folk tales around a campfire, some of them might have sounded like this. The genuinely playful orchestration - banjos? horns? chimes? slide? check – is by turns charming and perverse, and has a band-of-brethren feel to it that's both ominous and exiting. The title track is like a pure shot of adrenaline. An intimate, unexpected masterpiece." - John Darnielle/The Mountain Goats

Blue Cheer - What Doesn't Kill You (CD)
Who would have thought that Blue Cheer would still be touring and recording after 40 years? I believe this to be the band's first studio recording since 1991's Dining With Sharks. The band put on a great live show at NorthSix about a year or so ago so I would expect this to be a great disc.

Cro-Mags: The Final Quarrel - Live at CBGB (DVD)
MVD has put out some pretty interesting stuff documenting the NYHC scene and this is no exception. This DVD captures the final Cro-Mags show (with both John Joseph and Harley Flanagan) at CBGB in 2001. As a bonus features, Amazon says that the disc includes a full set from Harley's War, Harley Flannigan's post Cro-Mags band.

Heaven & Hell - Live from Radio City Music Hall
Dio-era Sabbath captured live on March 30, 2007 at Radio City Music Hall. This has been released as a 2-CD set and a (separately sold) DVD. Both this tour and this particular show got stellar reviews -- 'nuff said.

Killswitch Engage - "As Daylight Dies" (CD/DVD)
The CD came out a month ago and is now being reissued with a bonus DVD and four bonus audio tracks. (I'd be p*ssed if I bought this a month ago). The DVD contains:
"My Curse" video
Making of "My Curse" video
"The Arms of Sorrow" video
Making of the "The Arms of Sorrow" video
"Holy Diver" video (Dio Cover)

and the bonus tracks on the CD are:
Be One
Let the Bridges Burn
This Fire
Holy Diver

Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn (CD)
There is both a 2-disc and a 3-disc version of the 40th anniversary edition of the first Pink Floyd release (w/ Syd Barrett).

The two disc version contains both the stereo and mono versions of Piper. The three disc version contains the same stereo/mono Piper discs plus a third disc of bonus tracks. The bonus track include all the Pink Floyd singles from 1967, ('Arnold Layne', 'See Emily Play', and 'Apples And Oranges'), plus the B sides 'Candy And A Current Bun' and 'Paintbox'. Other tracks are a version of 'Interstellar Overdrive' - previously only available on an EP in France - and the 1967 stereo version of 'Apples And Oranges'.