They Came Burning - Where The Wild Things Were
by James

This was a hard CD for me to review. I've listened to "Where The Wild Things Were" a few dozen times and every time I listened, I liked it less. I couldn't put my finger on why that was, though. I hate that! As I was listening, today, I finally figured out what it is that bugs me about this album. "I had what alcoholics refer to as a 'moment of clarity'". After that moment, I knew I would finally be able to sit down and write this review. Before I get to what I didn't like, though, let's see what these guys did right.

The first time I put this disc in my player, I was loving it. The music is seriously jamming with a laundry list of influences shining through at every turn. Pretty much everything you love about metalcore is present on "Where The Wild Things Were", from euro metal style riffs to neck breaking, mosh inducing breakdowns to a few moments of thrash for flavor. I can honestly say that I was always surprised at how They Came Burning made their transitions when I was getting to know this album. The first time I heard the breakdown at the end of A Song For A Rainy Day, I wanted to break some shit. As I said, though, upon listening multiple times, that one thing drug the whole record down for me. That one thing was the vocals. When you listen to this kind of music, you need to feel the anger and frustration coming from the person on the mic. When you think they are genuinely pissed off, you get pissed off with them. I just don't feel that here. It is more like someone screaming because, hey, you're supposed to scream on a metalcore album. The other thing about the vocals that I didn't like is there is absolutely no variation, whatsoever. His scream is the same volume and tone through the entire album, causing the songs to actually run together the more you listen to them. Normally, songs stand out more as you get more acquainted with the music, but not this time.

Apart from the vocals, this album is total aces in my book and as I understand it, the vocalist that recorded this album is no longer with the band, so here's hoping they got someone with a bit more range to his screams. What do I know, though? I'm just some jack ass writing words for a web site.