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Burning
Brides
Leave No Ashes
(V2)
When I hear the word ‘bride’ I think of two things.
I think of a beautiful girls dolled up in wedding dresses, looking
very much like a fairy tale princesses, and I think of extremely
scary women running around stressing themselves over one particular
day of their lives. I had never heard the word ‘bride’
and thought of music, except in reference to the horrible type
played at weddings. I definitely had never equated the word
‘bride’ with rock music before; that is until I
was introduced to the stylings of the Burning Brides.
They are exactly what it sounds like- an ironic twist on things
that are usually considered mundane and commonplace. Their music
is a conglomerate of metal sounding rock and snarling vocals
of the best rocker you can think of. Their sound can vary from
a mellow tune to guitar crunching rock that suspiciously sounds
like variations of Black Sabbath. Each song on Leave No
Ashes sounds unlike the one before. While lyrical themes
are easily found in Burning Brides music, there is no one theme
in the overall sound.
The band themselves formed in Philadelphia back in 1999. Dimitri
Coats (vocals/guitar) and his longtime girlfriend Melanie Campbell
(bass) moved around the country together in order to find musical
inspiration in such places as Portland and Boston, before eventually
settling down in Philadelphia. Their first album, Fall of
the Plastic Empire (released in 2001), often left them
pegged as one of the many acts in the garage band tidal wave.
The truth is, the Burning Brides sound nothing like The Strokes
or The White Stripes, so putting them in the that category is
rather deceiving.
Leave No Ashes is not the sort of record you want to
listen to if you’re searching for oblivious happiness.
The album is generally composed of metal inspired rock along
with a few hauntingly slow songs with dark lyrics. Their songs
are gloomy, teetering on sounding sinister in some parts (the
last song on the record ends with a haunting chant that could
give a person nightmares). In contrast “Heart Full of
Black” is morose, but is also an upbeat rock song with
a catchy chorus. It is easy to see the track being played next
to any modern rock radio hit. “Last Man Standing”
is the other standout effort on the album. It is the slowest
song on the record and likely the best. It is a bittersweet
love song with great lyrical content, and is the tune that leaves
the others in the dust as you are likely to put it on repeat
while you forget the rest.
Leave No Ashes is not an album that will be remembered
for its optimistic cheer. It makes references to things like
fire and suffering, and other sorts of self-deprecating pain
you can think of (not perfect romance or epic love). Not to
say the entire record is a depressive mess, because the music
is rather upbeat. It is once the lyrics start sticking in your
head that you realize much of the record focuses around cynical
thoughts. The words can be complex at times and the listener
will really have to think about them to get the full effect
of what Coats is trying to say. Leave No Ashes is the
type of record that will be really impressive to some and disturbing
to others. There are really just three words that sum up the
record: dark, cynical, and intriguing. This record will leave
you thinking.
Reviewed by
Ashley Lefor
August 9th, 2004 |
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