### As My World Burns: Letters from Alaska

#### 13/01/10 || Smalley

Looks like my stocking stuffer from that grumpy ol’ saint Ni(K)olaus this Christmas is the debut album of some metalcore band from Madrid; thanks a lot, ye magnificently-bearded bastard!! While “Letters from Alaska” ain’t exactly a lump of shit in yer stocking, it isn’t anywhere near official-Red-Ryder-carbine-action-model-air-rifle levels either; the vocals stick to the expected annoying, half-assed growls and whines, and besides a few decent riffs (very few decent riffs), the standard ‘core songwriting here fails to leave any impression.

You get fast parts, breakdowns, some melodic moments, plenty of tempo switch-ups, and almost nothing worth remembering. “Average” isn’t a good enough word to convey the sheer songwriting mediocrity here, and as much as I despise shit like “Bleed the constants”, the bad albums do give me some enjoyment in the end, since at least I can rip them apart for all GD to witness. Here? No such luck…

Oh, I just thought of one particularly shitty thing about this record; because of the incredibly-unremarkable songwriting, the fucken thing goes on for fucken forever, making pro-bono online metal reviewers everywhere waste their time listening to/writing about an album that only about 2.23 people in the world will end up listening to anyway.

To sum this up, “Letters from Alaska” is the Christmas present equivalent of yet another sweater that you have to try on for a few seconds to make your The Project Hate-playing Gran-Gran happy, which you then leave in the nether realms of your closet (the sweater, not Granny) to offer an acceptable sacrifice unto the evil moths. So long, lousy present!

…and yes, I know by the time this gets posted, it probably won’t be Christmas-time anymore. So?

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Noise Head
- Website: As My World Burns MySpace
- Band
- Raul: vocals
- Txus: guitars
- Alberto: guitars
- Miguel: bass
- Alex: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Jacqueline
- 02. Waltz Of Masks
- 03. Clocks
- 04. A Bullet And Farewell
- 05. Now That The City Sleeps
- 06. Circles
- 07. A Missed Phone Call
- 08. Black, Melancholy & Autumn
- 09. Static Shot
- 10. Letters From Alaska