Artist: Bury Your Dead
Album: Mosh N’ Roll
Genre: Hardcore
Label: Mediaskare

A lot of people claim to love hardcore, but I find that’s rarely the case. What people really love is whatever heavy act(s) they relate to and anything beyond that, or of a different subgenre, is either stupid or completely off their radar. That may seem harsh, but after a decade of shows in dingy basements and not-much-better clubs I’ve found this to be the case literally everywhere I’ve traveled. There’s nothing wrong with it, our ability to have preferences is part of what makes us human, but it also makes reviewing hardcore records much more difficult than it needs to be. You want to appeal to genre fans, but if they don’t exist, then you have to hope whoever reads your thoughts likes your subgenre or else your words are useless.

Bury Your Dead have been a band I’ve kept an eye on since You Had Me At Hello lead them to signing a potentially awful deal with Victory Records. Cover Your Tracks followed (and was incredible) and Beauty And the Breakdown kept the pits raging, but the departure of vocalist Mat Bruso left me (and pretty much everyone else) turned off from later material. Don’t get me wrong, the music remained extremely entrancing, but Bruso brought a presence and level of lyrical genius that couldn’t be repeated, regardless of how many may have tried.

Then early this year news broke that Bruso had returned to the group and I was instantly Googling my brains to mush for details. I mean, it has been 5 years since Bruso’s last album with the band and 4 since he officially left, so what could he possibly have left to say? Well, I’ve heard Mosh N’ Roll and the answer is, without giving anything away, a lot.

Don’t get confused, Mosh N’ Roll is very much a return to form of sorts for BYD. It’s angry, heavy, and exudes this aura of “I don’t give a fuck” attitude that is downright palpable, but it has been so long since a vocalist with the viewpoints and delivery of Bruso has blessed the stage that it may take a few moments to re-acclimate to the group’s dynamic, crushing sound. This return to form will also cause a backlash from people claiming the group are dumbing down from their more recent releases, but it really comes down to a matter of taste. From what I’ve seen/heard, the group was much more successful and, for lack of a better word, happier with a straight-up hardcore sound, so it makes sense that they would return here now that they’ve regrouped. This is the sound of starting over and it sounds as passionate as it did when they first began.

The deciding factor in whether or not you love Mosh N’ Roll will most likely come down to which era of Bury Your Dead you enjoyed the most. That said, I think it’s safe to safe the masses will be embracing this one much, much more than the previous two albums. It’s heavy, full of gang vocals, and utterly relentless. If that sounds like your kind of medicine, I suggest a maximum dose.

Mosh N’ Roll is the record Bury Your Dead needed, I just hope it arrived in time.

Score: 8/10
Review written by: James Shotwell

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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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