CD review, Jan 10. Everything Burns – Home (Rising Records UK)

I’ve tried listening to this a few times and can’t much get past half way. It’s just too poppy, not to mention eight years too late. The first track starts off with the absolutely atypical metalcore breakdown chug riff, as if a thousand bands haven’t already used it before, and so the pattern continues. I have to at least respect that there isn’t a lot of growling, pretending to be Metal, rather we’re straight into some pleasant melodic singing, this could be Journey… damn, I might even be getting to like it! I guess I shouldn’t be such a curmudgeon, but then I’m a rock guy, and this is quite simply pop music masquerading as some kind of rock beast… don’t get me started on the lyrics. You get the picture. I guess for what it is, it is good; catchy choruses and bouncy riffing. If it turns on some young teenagers to Iron Maiden further down the road, it can’t be bad. I wish them luck, I really do, but if I want to hear pop music I’ll listen to Duran Duran.