Artist: August Burns Red
Album: Leveler
Genre: Metalcore
Label: Solid State

When a band decides they have had enough of the sound that their fans have come to love, and expect and that they want to grow and progress beyond; to try new things that no one was expecting, more often than not, everything goes horribly wrong. Kiss’ disco album comes to mind, although that was more a blatant case of selling out beyond all comprehension, than genuine experimentation. AFI are also a good modern example of this, they’ve completely redefined their sound three times throughout their career. The first two worked. Many good bands have been lost to experimentation over the years, and most can’t ever really recover from it. Which gave me reason to be concerned about August Burns Red’s new album Leveler, the rumor-mill had been churning out whispers of a growth from their old sound, with a few experimental bits never before heard in a metalcore album. Uh oh. For years August Burns Red have been pushing the boundaries of metalcore in a way that hasn’t been seen since As I Lay Dying first showed up on the scene, and they have been acting as the driving force behind a mandatory scene-wide progression. Their desire for progression certainly isn’t unfounded, they have been growing solidly with each release, and at this point, they are definitely masters of their craft, so where do they go from here? They could stick to the same old formula, or they could try something new, and see how it works out, they attempted the latter, and were met with varying degrees of successful execution.

From a technical standpoint, August Burns Red has always been at the top of their game, they are technically perfect in a way that most bands can’t touch. However, they have always fallen short in terms of creativity, all their riffs and breakdowns are textbook examples of well-applied music theory, they simply don’t step out of the box all that often. Which made the premise of them doing precisely that, even more concerning. Initially though, the album sounded on par with the typical August Burns Red sound, it isn’t until the second song, “Internal Cannon” that I really came across a bit that caught my attention and made me think, “Well that was weird…” All of a sudden, the driving metal song dropped off into a salsa beat. Now, this wasn’t exactly a poorly written salsa part, but it really had no place in an August Burns Red song, it just wasn’t congruent to the rest of the album, it stood out on it’s own just a little too much; it simply felt contrived. To a point, bands need to stay true to their sound, at least so the music remains cohesive, and this didn’t work in that respect. The rest of the album was business as usual, “Pangea” was truly a standout track, with mind-boggling riffs, harmonized tapping, and a solo that I just have no words to describe. “Pangea” was followed by “Carpe Diem”, another example of their attempted experimentation, except this was executed exceedingly well. The song begins with a darker tone, broken by the shrieks of vocalist Jake Luhrs, introducing a new, and seriously impressive vocal range to the band’s sound, before dropping into a softer section, layered with a slide guitar; a completely new element to metalcore as a whole, but unlike the salsa part, it is perfectly cohesive to the overall tone of the album, it fit together flawlessly, and the end result was one of the most impressive tracks on the album.

When it comes down to it, Leveler is certainly the most interesting offering to date from August Burns Red, and for the most part, that’s a good thing. The album was a lot more dynamic than previous efforts, and introduced fans to several new elements of their music. It fell short in some respects though, my main gripe being the entirely out of place salsa part in “Internal Cannon” but for every moment like that, the band made up for it with stellar songs like “Pangea” or the well-executed experimentation of “Carpe Diem”. But of course, not every experiment is a success, without the occasional failure, they would never grow. So while the album wasn’t without it’s flaws, August Burns Red still continues to be at the top of their game, pushing the boundaries of metalcore, with a respectable success rate. A for effort, C for execution.

SCORE: 7/10
Review written by: Michael Hogan

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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