Skimming the first couple of lines of the promo letter from Noizgate Records, it mentions melodic death metal. Righto, I can certainly appreciate that. Now, my surprise was big when I threw the disc into the player the first time. The first tune on ‘In Cycles’, the third album by German Burden Of Life, sounds like Anathema. Female vocals, acoustic guitars, violin and everything. So far, so good – it has nothing to do with death metal, but it sounds really good!
Then the scene changes completely. Now it if, admittedly, melodic death metal. Again, it sounds really good. Singer Christian is not a far cry from Alexi from Children of Bodom, and that’s sadly not my favourite vocal style, but, hey, it works quite well. The next track, Devil in the Detox, shows that there is more to Christian than the clean, Anathema-like vocal of the first track and the Alexi vocal; this is where he goes Devin Townsend-style in places. I like it. Skipping to the last track of the album, At the Heart of Infinity, I’m less impressed with some of his clean vocal parts, however, the track is impressive on the whole with its 12 minute of prog/epic rock-inspired metal, again with both female vocals, Alexi vocals and clean vocals.
‘In Cycles’ is a modern sounding melodic death metal album with lots of inspiration from epic rock and prog. Burden Of Life is clearly a band who dare to take their music to new boundaries, like for example Anathema have done, and what they have come up with sounds both powerful and beautiful. A great album, this one. Do try it at home.
Track listing:
01. Amour Fou
02. In Cycles
03. Devil in the Detox
04. 52 Hz
05. Kafkaesque
06. The Narcissist
07. Lantern Slides
08. At the Heart of Infinity
Playing time: 47 minutes
Release date: 29th of April, 2016
Label: Noizgate Records
Website: www.burdenoflife.de
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