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

All That Remains - The Fall of Ideals CD Review

I originally overlooked this CD when it was released year but it has quickly become one of my favorites. This is great melodic hardcore and singer Phil Labonte has a vocal range that can easily transition from death-metal growls to melodic singing. After touring throughout 2006 behind this CD, it looks as though this release may be the band's breakthrough as they are currently selling out many of the shows on their first headline tour.

There is a lot to recommend this CD and Adam D's (Killswitch Engage) production work highlights the strengths of the band. Phil has grown as a vocalist since This Darkened Heart and newcomer Shannon Lucas' drumming propels the explosive intensity of many of the songs. Guitarists Mike Martin and Oli Herbert have a style that is very reminicent of the duo-lead guitars used by many of the late-70s British bands like Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy. Jeanne Sagan is no slouch either and adds a steady backbeat.

The lyrical themes of the CD deals with the fall of ideals and many song lyrics could almost be considered straight-edge. The themes focus around staying true to one's beliefs and picking yourself up after a relationship horribly dies. It looks like Phil (or whomever wrote these lyrics) was going through some hard times. Musically, the band hasn't lost any of their intensity so the melodic sections of the songs shouldn't fool anyone into thinking the band has gone soft. As compared to This Darkened Heart, there is more melody on this disc but none of the tracks are ballads. On most tracks, the melody is fit within an overarching trash/death-metal blast. The last song on the disc, Indictment, is the hardest track and its themes of anger and betrayal just boil.

Standout tracks are: This Calling, Become the Catalyst and The Air I Breathe. There are videos for This Calling and The Air I Breathe on YouTube.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Phil about a week ago (See previous post for interview) and he wasn't expecting the band to have a new CD until 2008. This looks like one to watch out for.

You can check out All That Remains at:
www.allthatremainsonline.com
www.myspace.com/allthatremains

Exclusive Interview with Phil Labonte from All That Remains

I had the pleasure of speaking to Phil Labonte on Wednesday as the band was on their way to a show at The Whisky in Los Angeles. Phil was nice enough to allow me to record the conversation so here is a link to both the podcast and a direct link to the mp3.

All That Remains plays Irving Plaza on Wed, Feb 21, 2007. Tickets are only $14.50.



Many thanks to Shannon at Razor and Tie for setting up this interview.

All That Remains Headline Their First Tour and Play Irving Plaza on Feb. 21st

All That Remains have started their first headline tour and are playing Irving Plaza on Feb. 21st. Tickets are only $14.50 in advance and $16.00 day of sale. Other bands on the bill are Misery Signals, The Human Abstract, and Cellador.

All That Remains are a solid live band and they have been touring non-stop for the last few years. In 2006 the band played the European leg of the Sounds of the Underground tour, had a stateside run on Ozzfest and just finished a tour with Dragonforce and Horse the Band.

The band is continuing to tour behind their third release, The Fall of Ideals, which was released last summer. This CD, produced by Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage) is more melodic than its predecesor but the band hasn't given up any of their intensity. Check out the video for the leadoff track from the CD, This Calling, which was used in the movie Saw 3.



Drummer Shannon Lucas left the band last year so the band is currently searching for a full-time drummer. The band is requiring interested candidates to submit videos of them playing "This Calling" and "The Weak Willed" (both from The Fall of Ideals). There are a number of audition video posted to YouTube that are fairly interesting to watch.




The band starts their tour on the 23rd of January and complete tour dates are:

1/23 Huntington, WV – Hyamp
1/24 Nashville, TN – Exit / In

(with Misery Signals, Light This City)
1/26 Houston, TX – Meridian – Red Room
1/27 San Antonio, TX – White Rabbit
1/28 Fort Worth, TX – Ridglea Theater
1/30 Tempe, AZ – The Clubhouse Music Venue
1/31 West Hollywood, CA – The Whisky

(with Misery Signals, The Human Abstract)
2/01 San Diego, CA – Soma Sidestage
2/02 Anaheim, CA – Chain Reaction
2/03 San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
2/05 Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater
2/06 Vancouver, BC – Croatian Cultural Centre
2/07 Seattle, WA – El Corazon
2/09 Salt Lake City, UT – Avalon Theater
2/10 Denver, CO – Marquis Theatre
2/11 St. Louis, MO – Creepy Crawl
2/13 Covington, KY – The Mad Hatter
2/14 Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s Down Under
2/16 Chicago, IL – Metro
2/17 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
2/18 Toronto, ONT – Opera House
2/19 Montreal, QC – Club Soda
2/21 New York, NY – Irving Plaza
2/23 West Springfield, VA – Jaxx
2/24 Troy, NY – Revolution Hall
2/25 Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts