Sometimes it’s really nice to hear an artist you admire doing something completely different, but still managing to sound familiar enough to actually make you want to listen earnestly. If you’ve read any of my previous reviews, you’ll know I’m familiar with Aaron Stainthorpe’s body of work, but am unaware of ever having encountered bassist, vocalist, songwriter Tombs, or the rest of the five-piece comprising of rhythm guitarist Sam Hill, lead guitarist Jonny Hunter and drummer Dan Brown. What’s also pretty apt is the labelling of the band as Death Pop, as it most certainly has plenty of poppy elements, but enough darkness and harsh vocals to keep even the bubbliest of tunes from sounding saccharine.
The album starts off with the title track “Forever We Burn” with a moody bass rumble, cymbals taps and a guitar melody that quickly becomes much heavier as Aaron roars for the first time, but just as quickly the tempo slows and his clean vocals bring chills which are amplified by the astounding voice of Tapping The Vein’s Heather Thompson, while her husband Gregor Mackintosh’s production adds a Lost touch to the sound.
Easily the most familiar sounding songs is “My Syndrome”, but mostly owing to the fact that the vocals flick effortlessly between clean and death with an aggressive guitar sound and pounded drums, but not necessarily at the same time to let melodic elements underpin the composition.
The way the allegro clean vocals meld with the harsh growls of the rather up-tempo sections of “Grave Intentions” are great, because somehow, they make even the growls sound happy for some reason.
The gothy driving bass and chugging guitar on “Wasn’t Human” allow the lead to shine brightly as a melancholic accompaniment to the resonating vocals during both the verse and chorus.
A synthy pop intro is quickly drowned out by the driving guitars, metronomic drums, and harsh raspy vocals, but this all quickly fades as “Concentric Nightmares” blends that with its electronic elements and melodic vocals to great effect.
“Hate Springs Eternal” starts off sounding very much like an old Cradle of Filth song with ethereal female vocal chant and bass line, but it’s short lived, as once Aaron’s clean vocal comes in with its deep timbre that easily slides into his death growls and back to give near poppy sounding song a heavier edge.
I like the way the choruses on “Parasite” are far more cheerful than they probably should be in order to make the verses sound far gloomier with the chunky guitars, but it’s the spectacular lead that steals the show towards the end of the song.
The first single and most people’s introduction to the band is “Let It Fail” which has a serious nod to The Mission, well during the clean sections at least, but the guitars and bass work well over the strong drum tempo, while Heather’s subtle backing vocals add a hint of elegance.
The slow doomy bass line comes to life over the electronic sounding drum beat as the guitar melody is shattered by a roar and an elevation of tempo on “Widowmaker”, but that quickly is set aside as the vocals slide into a warm clean verse that is interspersed with further growls and immaculate leads to end on a high.
Easily the poppiest, danciest track on the album, “We Break We Die” has a repetitive drum tempo to suit the style, as the guitars slowly eke out their melodies while Aaron and Heather sing alongside some intentionally over-processed vocals to add to the darkwave ambience of the song, and a pleasant way to wrap things up.
I thoroughly enjoyed this album and am, like many others I’m sure, hoping it’s not going to be a one off.
(8/10 Marco Gaminara)
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