Review Summary: An average album from a band that could've done more.
Burn Season was a hard rock / alternative metal band formed in 2001, in Jacksonville, Florida (US).
Members are:
• Damien Starkey (vocals),
• Kevin Renwick (guitar),
• Adam Silk (bass),
• Bobby Amaru (drums).
On May 1st, 2007, Damien Starkey posted a MySpace bulletin, discussing the band breaking up.
Burn Season’s first cd ‘Burn Season’ was released 11 October 2005 under the label ‘Bieler Bros. Records’. Initially, the album was meant to be released under ‘Electra Records’, but due to financial difficulties, this was proven to be impossible.
I’ll be honest. The first time I heard this cd, I was hooked. It sounded great, especially songs like perfect and closer do a great job on increasing the album’s alluring sounds. However, after a short period, the album’s power decreased rapidly. It sounded catchy at the first listen, but the danger about catchy songs is, well, let’s just say they don’t last long. So I’ll try my best to evaluate the cd, from this current point of view.
Let's start at "Carry on", a song that carries a great melodic sound, which is very memorable. Besides that, its lyrics are well chosen and meaningful. "Closer" talks about goals, which you’d do anything for, something anyone can relate to. It’s a beautiful song, creating a balance between both its soft and hard side, commendable indeed. "Ending" talks about relationships that come out at dead ends… The chorus is pretty haunting afterwards. "Perfect" is the ballad of the album. It’s an impressive song, which definitely stands out from the rest. Musically, I’m stunned every time. It makes me hover in my mind and gives me inspiration, which is rare for me. I dare to say this is the best sound of the entire album. The lyrics are a little vague, which perfectly fits the ambience. They also conjure up an image; this recalls me of something, but I can’t quite picture what it’s supposed to be. "Sleepless" seems to be about someone who can’t face himself and attempts to escape reality. The song isn’t that extraordinary, but the thing behind the song caught my attention.
So far for the songs that stick in one’s memory.
As I said before, the album’s certainly has its drawbacks. "Addicted" sounds good on the first listen, but after a while, it gets repetitive. The lyrics are a bit too straightforward for my liking. "Revolution" is just a hard song, encouraging to start (no, seriously?) a revolution. Gets repetitive after a few listens, nothing special. "Save me" is about someone who wants to escape himself/herself (theme being somewhat similar to sleepless). An average song by all means. My attention slowly slips away during the song, which typically isn’t a good sign. "Falling" is no exception to the ‘annoying arsenal’. Besides the more or less decent chorus, there’s not much I can recall of the song, which basically consists of screams and noise (in a bad sense). "Mistakes" is just another song on the album, surprise surprise, repetitive. "Wasted" presents us a good start, with some peculiar screeching kind of sound (what is it?), but as the name suggests, it winds up as a wasted effort, being catapulted into the ‘to be deleted’-list.
To wrap up things, I would not have downloaded the album, should I have known what I know by now. However, there could be all sorts of reasons why the album’s not as great as it could be. With this I mean that the members of the band don’t lack talent (lyrics can be fantastic, not all songs are bad), just look at ‘Perfect’, the song which is head and shoulders above everything else. Still, this is no excuse for the more or less average album which we’ve got here in our hands. Score: 2,5 (average, not taking the potential into account)
