I've had a small collection of cd's from Lifeforce Records that i've been meaning to review for a few months now, better late than never i guess. First up is Bristol's Burning Skies, picked up by Lifeforce off the back of their first demo, this lot have built on the promise shown in their early demo and put out an absolute beast of an album.
Kicking off with a kinda of obligatory Intro track, we're then smacked in the face by the albums title track. From the off its obvious why they were picked up by Lifeforce, they're full of the usual references to At The Gates thats loved all across the European mainland, unlike most of the metalcore crop though, Burning Skies refrain from sticking in a beatdown to each and ever song on the album, possibly refreshing to some who are fed up of endless open pounding on guitars.
In addition to this there's some excellent death metal influences running through the album, from the singers vocals through to some excellent brutal tech riffs. See Individual Hate Campaign and Forever Endeavour for a prime example. In contrast they also squeeze in some typical hardcore rythmns for some quality 2 step moments.
The only down point for some could be that if this style isn't something you're totally into, a whole album of it could be a bit testing to sit and listen all the way through, however, you'd be hard pushed to find a stronger metalcore album at this standard released by a UK band in the past year.
www.burningskies.co.uk
www.lifeforcerecords.com - visit hear to get a track off the album
Seen Through Bleeding Eyes.mp3 - from their first demo