### August Burns Red: Messengers

#### 14/10/08 || Euthanatos

Oh, yay, an American Christian metalcore band. Just what I need to start off my day. These Pennsylvanians are on their sophomore release, being around since only 2003, all of them being practically kids as well, and frankly, it shows. Not that the mall-core presented on “Messengers” is half-assed, not at all; all musicians are pretty solid, particularly the guitar players, and the vocals are your run-of-the-mill, sounding exactly like everyone else in metalcore bands do. I sometimes wonder if this is the vocalist`s real voice or just a sound pre-recorded on pro-tools. All these people can’t possibly have the same vocals.

The problem with August Burns Red is just that; they are generic as fuck. Put them beside ten other recent American bands, and I’m willing to bet you won’t be able to differentiate them. All the song structures are the same, the vocal lines are the same, the lyrics are all about overcoming temptation and troubles or some kind of lost love. The way these geeky kids nowadays are, I wouldn’t put it past them that someone made a software where you automatically generate a random metalcore song, repeat, here’s an album!

If you’re 13 years old and you live in the American Mid-West, sure, this might be appealing. If you’re a normal human being, this and Britney Spears do about the same thing to you.

The cover: One of the coolest I’ve seen all year. A candle burning into a hand. Neat.

2 Jesus may love you, but we don’t out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2007
- Label: Solid State Records
- Website: www.augustburnsred.com
- Band
- Jake Luhrs: vocals
- JB Brubaker: guitar
- Brent Rambler: guitar
- Dustin Davidson: bass, vocals
- Matt Greiner: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Truth of a Liar
- 02. Up Against The Ropes
- 03. Back Burner
- 04. The Blinding Light
- 05. Composure
- 06. Vital Signs
- 07. The Eleventh Hour
- 08. The Balance
- 09. Black Sheep
- 10. An American Dream
- 11. Redemption