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Album Review: Everything Burns – Take Your Aim

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Everything Burns follow-up to their 2010 effort ‘Home’ nearly failed to materialise after singer Tim Kellow had a brush with death (and an Audi A3) on route to securing some post-gig KFC.  As well as traffic-based danger, their second album has been dogged with setbacks, ranging from an injured drummer to member walkouts and studio delays.  Now the prog metal 5-piece’s album is finally ready, the question is: was it worth the wait?

Closer to an EP than an album, ‘Take Your Aim’ offers eight tracks, two of which are intro/interludes, both lasting less than 75-seconds. It may be short, but unless you’re a die-hard fan of Bullet For My Valentine-style metalcore, it’s unlikely you’ll be left craving more.  Despite the heavy ‘Intro’ which is filled with killer-riffs and screaming vocals, second track and single ‘Ghosts and Angels’ is a radio-friendly slice of angsty rock, cut from the exact same cloth as other bands of the genre.

Unfortunately the majority of this release is plagued by unimaginative, partially rhyming lyrics such as track ‘Battlefields’  gem “This is for the stupid and the brave, come and get a little dazed” –  just one example in an album littered with cringeworthy culprits. The weakness of ‘Take Your Aim’ lies in both its songwriting and overwhelming familiarity; every track feels like something you’ve heard somewhere before.

Title track ‘Take Your Aim’ and heavy stomper ‘Shadows’ are the better efforts of this album, demonstrating the bands technical skill and showing that Everything Burns are capable of producing anthemic, memorable tracks.  With the majority of the album dedicated to songs about standing your ground, making your mark and doing things your way, it’s disappointing thatEverything Burns don’t attempt to do this themselves. Despite experimenting with a dubstep baseline on closing track ‘Whomper’, the bulk of ‘Take Your Aim’ chooses to stick to a well-trod path.  

‘Take Your Aim’ is a flawed effort, made listenable thanks to a couple of fairly catchy tracks. However with standout albums from Killswitch Engage and Senses Fail already released this year and begging for repeat listens, only the most dyed-in-the-wool metalcore aficionado will have time for this.

2/5

‘Take Your Aim’by Everything Burns is out on the 20th May on Meshhead.

Everything Burns links: Website|Facebook|Twitter

Words by Jay Sullivan

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