Band: Burden Of Grief
Title: Follow The Flames
Label: Massacre Records
Distribution: Suburban
Release date: August 2nd 2010
Review: DCD

For more than ten years the German band Burden Of Grief represents the ideal combination of catchiness and heaviness, melody and brutality, modern en old school inspired. The band’s former Thrash / Death Metal albums were of an acceptable quality and Follow The Flames, produced by über-producer Dan Swanö himself, dwells within the same regions. There is enough variation between the tracks, going for both tempo and song structures, and the groovy hymns come with a colossal yet organic sound – with gratitude to Mr. Swanö, of course.
It’s been three years since Burden Of Grief did release their latest album (Death End Road, 2007, released through Remedy Records) and it does bring me to the major difference between past and presence: I get much more vibed nowadays by these melo-Thrash rhythms than before. I guess it must have to do with the intense touring and writing process, but it shows.
And this is not all. Follow The Flames comes with a second disc, an eight-tracker with interesting cover songs, created by the band as a gift to their fans for their support throughout the years. These ones have been produced by Dan Swanö too, who, by the way, features as guest vocalist on the The Doors-cover "Break On Through". Most of these cover tracks are pretty interesting, even though they do never, in not one single case, reach the level of the original (but that might be an evidence in most cases, isn’t it?). but it is a real pleasure to listen to classics as "Aces High" (Iron Maiden), "Refuse / Resist" (Sepultura; with guest vocals by Holy Moses’ Sabina Classen) or "The Four Horsemen" (Metallica). Besides Dan and Sabina, also Tankard’s Gerre features as guest on the album, more specifically on Blind Guardian’s "Valhalla".

Conclusion: very interesting material for the die-hard fans specifically, and Death / Thrash fans in general.

80/100

Ivan Tibos.