Band : August Burns Red
Album title : Messengers
Label : Solid State Records – Tooth And Nail
Distributor : Gordeon Music Promotion
Release date : October 2008 (or.release date 2007)
Release : CD

Noóó, this ain't no new album from the Lancaster, Pennsylvania based lot! It's just that, while they have just finished (last date was October 12) headlining a tour in the US (allied to A Skylit Drive, Sky Eats Airplane, Greeley Estates, and This Or The Apocalypse – more about the latter soon, as they have a new album coming up), they'll be on our continent starting October 15 (kicking off a European tour in Helsinki, Finland). After doing a round in Scandinavia, the band heads down to Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Trier) before heading on over to the former East Block (Prague in Czech Republic, Bratislava in Slovenia), then jumps over to Munich to return to Vienna. Milano (Italy, Aarau (Switzerland) and Paris (France) are up next, and on October 31 the guys set foot to ground at Brussel's Ancienne Belgique club. Then, it's off to Amsterdam (Holland), the UK (Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London) before heading out to Portugal (for gigs in Porto and Lisbon), and then back North to Belfast (N-Ireland) and Dublin (Ireland). More details on the dates at myspace.com/augustburnsred!

Now for some history lessons, okay? For ABR things started in March 2003 while some of its members were still at high school. Soon enough, the band (stating the likes of Between The Buried And Me, Misery Signals, and Hopesfall as main influences) started playing shows in their own area. Following a 2004 demo, and while still fronted by Jon Hershey, the band signed to CI Records, who issued the 5-track EP Looks Fragile After All early in the next year (a re-issue of the EP followed in 2007). ABR pulled in new frontman Josh McManness, continued to expand their area of influence, and signed to Solid State Records in 2005 for the November release of debut full-length Thrill Seeker. Following the release the band supported the album with several tours of the US, first allying with Reflux, Ed Gein and Animosity in December '05, then with Zao, Becoming The Archetype and Demon Hunter in Jan. '06, continuing on the Purevolume Silver Bullet tour in August and September (alongside Haste The Day, Inhale Exhale, and Scary Kids Scaring Kids), and eventually taking another run through the USA in April and May '07 with Chasing Victory, From A Second Story Window, Life In Your Way, and See You Next Tuesday. Somewhere in between, a final line-up change came when bassist Jordan Tuscan was replaced by Dustin Davidson (whom also provides backing vocals) and more imporantly, the frontman position was taken in by Jake Luhrs (the line-up being completed by founding members JB Brubaker & Brent Rambler on guitar, and Matt Greiner n the drums).

Also before that last tour, ABR had recorded their sophomore outing Messengers (), which was issued on June 19, 2007. The album sold 9,000 copies in its first week, peaked at #81 on the Billboard 100, and has sold over 45,000 copies since! A video was recorded for the song "Composure",thenreleased as a single. The second video for this album, for "Back Burner", was premiered on the band's MySpace page on August 13 of last. The album was also issued on vinyl (which included the vinyl-only bonus track "Mosley")in a limited rotation by CI Records. Although occasionally portrayed as being a Christian Hardcore band, the band members feel the music is more important than the fact that the members in the band are indeed of the Cristian faith. Terminology like Mathcore, Hardcore, and Metalcore definitely apply to the band's music, which is in essence a nice Technically played Death Metal with some Progressive touches and Hardcore drive, on top of which the Metalcore screamer does his best! You can find samples of the band's musical abilities at several locations: myspace.com/augustburnsred (where the playlist is temporarily "blacked out" by a link to the band's online store; also check the videos), last.fm/music/August+Burns+Red (25-second samples of all the album's tracks bar one, and samples for all previous material; as well as a total of 24 related videos), and purevolume.com/augustburnsred (identifiable full-length versions of 4 songs on this album, and 4 more off Thrill Seeker!).

I'm definitely in the genre (love it when musicians play stuff which is somewhat challenging both to themselves and the listeners), and couldn't care a hoot whether the members are Christian or not! I mean, they don't go about preaching in their songs' lyrics, so...? Anyways, as this album was originally released last year, I cannot put it into this 2008's year-lists, right? But a nice thing about this European re-issue, is the fact that you get the vinyl bonus track imbedded in album closer "Redemption"!

98/100

Tony.