Foundations of Burden may not be all that different from previous output, but in terms of presentation the music has been tweaked rather significantly.
Do I enjoy this record? The simple answer is no. The reasons I leave for after the cut.
If you're ready to hear why I dislike this record, by all means continue. If not, then there's no need. I won't be offended; I know a lot of people like and enjoy this record, and that's fine.
Okay, so in order to properly explain why I dislike Foundations of Burden, I feel it's necessary to go back to their first album, 2012's Sorrow & Extinction. I think it's fair to say that the seeds of the second album lie in two tracks from the first, namely "Foreigner" and "The Legend".
Sorrow & Extinction, while a very good album, is flawed. It contains five tracks, two of which are weak and ineffective. Which ones are those? The ones I just named, of course! These two tracks don't exhibit the quality of doom songwriting that I consider essential: massive guitar riffs. In fact, the guitars seem to play a secondary role to the vocals, which is something I normally do not abide under any circumstance when it comes to metal.
I tolerate it on Sorrow & Extinction because the rest of the tracks are so goddamn good. "Devoid of Redemption" is the best of the three, an absolute beast that is filled with riffs from beginning to end. The song is so strong that I can ignore the others I dislike. "An Offering of Grief" is slightly less riff-oriented, but still strong. And the closer is basically a long march that leads to a very short vocal section and ends with a lead section that is quite nice.
But really, the meat of Sorrow & Extinction is "Devoid of Redemption". The riffs contained within it are just that powerful, that evocative, that awesome.
I can't say that I expected Pallbearer to go down that route with Foundations of Burden. Certainly, I recognized that it was an option, but I also dreaded that they might take their cue from "Foreigner"/"The Legend" and build their second album off of more melodic aspirations.
...and what do you know, that's exactly what happened.
I don't think that really tells the whole story, though. Because if the album was merely built off of melodic playing and clean vocals, there might still be something for me to enjoy, however peripherally. I dislike Foundations of Burden because the vocals dominate every other aspect of the recording and the guitars in particular are submissive to them.
Aside from "Worlds Apart" and maybe 3-5 minutes of "Foundations", there is little I like in terms of the guitar playing. Do either of those tracks give me the same feeling as "Devoid of Redemption"?
No, not at all.
And that is what makes Foundations of Burden a disappointment to me.
The best example of the new route the band has taken is "Ashes". It's pretty much all vocals with little in the way of instrumental backing (or less than usual, it seems); it's not a capella, but the music behind the vocals has no impact.
If the guitars didn't feel like they were written to serve the vocals rather than stand out on their own, I would likely enjoy this album more. I still wouldn't call it great, or even good, though.
So it appears that Pallbearer has gone a similar route as other bands before them, namely Mastodon, Opeth, and Kylesa. My excitement for future output has been severely damaged as a result, and while I will most likely give it a chance, to say that I have little to no expectation for it being good (or anything like "Devoid of Redemption") is entirely obvious.
Sorrow & Extinction, while a very good album, is flawed. It contains five tracks, two of which are weak and ineffective. Which ones are those? The ones I just named, of course! These two tracks don't exhibit the quality of doom songwriting that I consider essential: massive guitar riffs. In fact, the guitars seem to play a secondary role to the vocals, which is something I normally do not abide under any circumstance when it comes to metal.
I tolerate it on Sorrow & Extinction because the rest of the tracks are so goddamn good. "Devoid of Redemption" is the best of the three, an absolute beast that is filled with riffs from beginning to end. The song is so strong that I can ignore the others I dislike. "An Offering of Grief" is slightly less riff-oriented, but still strong. And the closer is basically a long march that leads to a very short vocal section and ends with a lead section that is quite nice.
But really, the meat of Sorrow & Extinction is "Devoid of Redemption". The riffs contained within it are just that powerful, that evocative, that awesome.
I can't say that I expected Pallbearer to go down that route with Foundations of Burden. Certainly, I recognized that it was an option, but I also dreaded that they might take their cue from "Foreigner"/"The Legend" and build their second album off of more melodic aspirations.
...and what do you know, that's exactly what happened.
I don't think that really tells the whole story, though. Because if the album was merely built off of melodic playing and clean vocals, there might still be something for me to enjoy, however peripherally. I dislike Foundations of Burden because the vocals dominate every other aspect of the recording and the guitars in particular are submissive to them.
Aside from "Worlds Apart" and maybe 3-5 minutes of "Foundations", there is little I like in terms of the guitar playing. Do either of those tracks give me the same feeling as "Devoid of Redemption"?
No, not at all.
And that is what makes Foundations of Burden a disappointment to me.
The best example of the new route the band has taken is "Ashes". It's pretty much all vocals with little in the way of instrumental backing (or less than usual, it seems); it's not a capella, but the music behind the vocals has no impact.
If the guitars didn't feel like they were written to serve the vocals rather than stand out on their own, I would likely enjoy this album more. I still wouldn't call it great, or even good, though.
So it appears that Pallbearer has gone a similar route as other bands before them, namely Mastodon, Opeth, and Kylesa. My excitement for future output has been severely damaged as a result, and while I will most likely give it a chance, to say that I have little to no expectation for it being good (or anything like "Devoid of Redemption") is entirely obvious.
