Often times in the music industry, you find artists tend to forget who they “are”. Their heritage. Their family. Their home. They’re often drowned in their own fame, or in their lust of something other than music, whatever it might be. Perhaps they’re even too focused on the opposite. Trying to be too serious of a band. Trying to uncover government conspiracies. Or trying to be as successful as possible. You don’t often find bands that just enjoy themselves, their lives, and truly know who they are as people.
As I sat and pondered these grave thoughts, I found myself being hit like a freight train. As I came to, I looked up, and I saw 5 figures, cascaded by the sun shining down on us. In the middle stood a man, with his right hand clenched. As I felt my face, it had become apparent that this man had just punched me in my jaw. Before I could even gather my thoughts and comprehend my next move, the man in the middle spoke. He said “So if you ain’t runnin’ with us, run from us, mother fucker.” And thus began the roller coaster called Red. White. Green.
Upon A Burning Body returns after a couple years of extensive touring and annihilating stages across the world with their relentless, heavy, groovy assault. This time around, the band boasts a couple new elements. The first being some pretty catchy melody strewn across the album. Another being the introduction of cleans. Now, let it be known that these cleans are nothing spectacular. They’re average, at best. But I WILL say that they accent the music very well, and I have no reason to complain about this new element. Upon A Burning Body follows a similar trend on this album compared to their previous, The World Is Ours. Although tough guy lyrics are the main facet of the content, they’ve also incorporated lyrics regarding their heritage and their home, hence the album title. Some may find this lyrical passage a turnoff, but to those who take this album with a grain of salt, they’ll enjoy the lyrics, but enjoy the music far more. Danny Leal, the aforementioned “man in the middle”, is as fierce as ever. His vocal style hasn’t changed, and many will consider that a great thing. His highs, mids, and lows are powerful. But what makes Danny’s vocals all the more impressive, is his pronunciation. Most vocalists are unintelligible when it comes to screams, but Danny does a great job in making his lyrics more visible than most. The axemen, C.J. and Sal, do a great job in all aspects of this album. Even the controversial interlude, “El Mariachi”, was very tasteful. I actually found it to be similar to Chelsea Grin’s “Kharon”, having a very soft feel to it, yet keeping the album’s theme very well. C.J.’s leads on this album are even more impressive than on The World Is Ours, in my opinion. Ranging from dark, to straightforward, he uses his fretboard very efficiently. Ruben, on bass, doesn’t really shine very bright on this album, but with his new clean incorporation, it gives him some time in the limelight.
The newest member of the band is the drummer, Jonathan Gonzales. Many of Upon A Burning Body’s dedicated fans probably already know that Lord Cocos left fairly recently, and is now apart of Serpents, which should be a good project in due time. But have no fear, Jonathan is a very capable drummer, and does great on Red. White. Green.. Blast beats, rolls, and breakdowns are all very tight and jive well with the onslaught driven by the band.
As for production on this album, it’s not bad. Maybe it’s just me, but the production seems to lack the punch it did on The World Is Ours. Although the drumming is tight, it doesn’t have the “meat” it did on their previous album, but still stands out enough to be considered a “good” part of the mix. One thing that actually sounded great to me was the bottom end on guitars. The low strings kicked hard through my speakers, even more so than the 808’s, especially on the opening track “Game Over”. Although this album is nothing extraordinary, it offers plenty of power and will keep any long time fans, or newer fans, bobbing their heads and destroying their rooms for some time to come. As I previously said, don’t let the semi cheesy vocals turn you off. Upon A Burning Body is a band that doesn’t emphasize being serious, they merely emphasize being themselves, and you all being yourself. That is, if you’re a partying, out of control, badass Desperado.
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