Johannesburg, South Africa is not exactly a place where you would expect a metalcore/melodic hardcore band to hail from, but now we know of at least one, Truth And Its Burden. The four-piece recently released their debut album, Choices, via Rite of Passage Records and seems to be off on the right track. Truth And Its Burden possess everything that you would hope a band of this nature to bring to the table. Strong vocals, powerful lyrics, great guitar melodies and riffs, and upbeat drumming.
One of my favourite aspects of Choices is the incredible breaks in “The Deal”, “Since Day One”, and “Placed In My Path” where everything disappears, except for a clean guitar part. “Placed In My Path” is my personal favourite track on the album because of this and a few other reasons. It is very upbeat, the guitar leads and riffs are great and very reminiscent of one of my favourite melodic hardcore bands, It Prevails, and the vocals and drumming remain strong.
Another thing that I really like is the instrumental tracks. “Partial” and “Symphony Conspiracy” are both instrumentals that are executed perfectly. Many bands of this genre add instrumentals to lengthen an album a bit, but most of them tend to act as filler tracks. The aforementioned tracks, however, are anything but filler because they flow well with the rest of the album while giving the listener a chance to catch his or her breath.
My only gripe with this album is the cleans. I usually am a fan of cleans (especially in this style of music) but the cleans on “The Decider”, “My Distance”, and “Realigning Faith” are sub-par and almost make me cringe. With that being said, the cleans on Choices are few and far between so it’s a very minor thing that one must bear.
To say the least, Choices is an impressive debut album. I found myself bobbing my head for almost the entire 33 minutes. The times when I stopped doing so were usually during the slower parts in songs but not because they were poorly done. These calmer parts were actually some of the best moments on Choices.
Links: Facebook – iTunes
For Fans Of: Hundredth, It Prevails, Counterparts
