Customer Reviews

Pilots & Paper Planes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The band is very amazing and this album show it all. The best song on the album probably is "High Noon" because it's unique and its so aggressive. The lyrics is beautifully written. I definitely recommend this album to any fan of aggressive music.

Burden Of A Day hail from florida, the mecca of all things screamo/metalcore, so their loud, in your face agressive style is almost to be expected. Indeed, BOAD have been drawing comparisons from across the spectrum - likened to everything from underoath and norma jean to taking back sunday and thrice - all in hopes of pinning something down. Now, I'm not about to contradict the critics, but I think they're missing something critical here; BOAD are almost as much pop as they are metalcore or screamo. The proof? Check the chorus on nearly every song. Catchy and concise, seemingly ripped from the playbooks of [insertrandompoppunkbandhere]. This isn't a bad thing, mind you. But it's key when describing the sound.

Another missing comparison (or one that isn't mentioned much), is to Thursday. In fact, listening to the track Sound Of Solace may even be a bit deceiving to the untrained ear. Between the dual layed scream sing vocals and soft spoken word exchange, you'd swear geoff himself had atleast a single hand in the song writing (until of course, the death metal guitar outro kicks in).

All comparisons aside though, BOAD stand out just enough to show promise. Their sound is a mash up of all styles screamo, a "best of core" band, if you will. And Pilots & Paper Planes is a relatively solid debut, save for the nearly insufferable No blood, No foul and the techincal guitar mess on the above mentioned Sound of Solace. Hey, not every track can be a winner when you're incorporating so many different sounds.

For me, and as I felt with Alexisonfire and their 2003 debut, I like what I hear...I'm just not ready to love it yet. Here's to hoping that like Alexis, and the awkward pre-Aaron underoath, BOAD really find their footing in the highly antisipated follow-up. Recommended.

Dropping names like it's their business) the write-up for this band includes Beloved, Thursday, The Bled and Refused) Burden of a Day has created a lot of hype around their Blood&Ink Records debut. Hype or not, does the record pay any dividends?

Yes.

This is high quality screamo. Taking lead tones from Thrice, the verse style of Underoath and the occasional atmospheric outro section of Beloved, this band have got it together. Even the drumming reminds me of Joe Musten. Despite the genre being oversaturated with this style of music, if its high quality, I'll listen!

"Escapism as an Art Form" will appeal to any fan of the screamo genre. This song just sticks with you--catchy, great leads all throughout and the combination of scream/sing vocals work very well here.

"No Blood No Foul" is another killer song that fits in with the aggressive end of screamo and a great breakdown that'll have you flailing along. I enjoy the added violin work in this song as well--this is something that these bands aren't doing much of and I'd like to see it more!

Every track on this album ends up being a solid piece of screamo work. What are the down points? As per usual, the disc isn't breaking any new ground. It pretty much does what you expect it to do for a screamo disc... but what a great job it does! The gruff vocals sound like The Bled and the clean vocals in most of the songs sound exactly like Adam Lazzara from Taking Back Sunday.

Take Underoath, Taking Back Sunday and The Bled and smash them together. That's what you've got. Take that as you will, but I'll take it and rock the hell out thank you!

The currently all-encompassing genre of metalcore (of both the melodic screamo type and balls to the wall angry persuasions), without a doubt, is this decade's nu-metal. Much like the often maligned genre that started in the early 90's, peaked in the mid to late 90's, and then turned into a dumping ground of washed up, no talent bands in the early 00's, faux-screamo and metalcore are reaching the ends of their life cycles. Both grew out of the underground at the end of the 90's and have proliferated quite strongly throughout the first half of this decade. In the last couple of years, however, it has reached the saturation point and, just like nu-metal, both genres have become a dumping ground for bands that have no idea how to innovate, so they play what they've been hearing for the last few years.

In rare cases nowadays a band will rise up from the refuse surrounding them and revitalize the mildew-laden, rotting riffs in some sort of new way. With Burden of a Day, you see a band trying so hard to bring together so much of the last few years in order to rise up, but it's all been done so much better in the past that this band just doesn't have a chance.

During the good moments the vocals are very reminiscent of The Refused or Thursday, but at other times they feel like an unfocused Hand to Hand or My Chemical Romance. The rapid pace, semi-spoken vocals are often the most appealing of the lot. It is the portions of attempted cleanly sung, and at times off tune, passages that will turn away the listener. That and the atrocious lyrics. Yes, this release is chalk full of the standard emo, cry baby lyrics. And on top of that you'll be graced by some of the Christian themes littered throughout, which I know some listeners just can't stand.

Musically, the most glowing part of the band is the punchy drumming, complete with a plethora of double bass rolls and straight ahead pace setting. Whereas many modern metalcore and faux-screamo bands use double bass pounding only for breakdowns, here you'll often find the double rolls are used throughout songs to keep the pace strong, which most of the tracks need since the majority of the time they feel like Alexisonfire and Poison the Well rip-offs.

It's hard to continually be fed the same regurgitated song structures, riffs, and vocal patterns and not get utterly fed up with the lack of innovation. Heck, with the majority of today's scream/sing bands, all I really want is some genuine emotion. Instead you get one or two pretty decent songs ("For Tomorrow We Die" and "Escapism as an Art Form") and about 10 crappy ones (the rest of this album). This scene is getting old. Let's move on.

Rick Gebhardt
www.rickgebhardt.net

Unfortunately (or maybe rather fortunately depending upon your viewpoint)the whole screamo/metalcore movement that's been happening over the last few years seems to have reached its tail-end. With every new band that is popping up simply retreading the ideas of all the bands that have come before them, it's almost impossible to really distinguish one derivative screamo outfit from another. Basically the only thing a band of this type can really do at this point is just be incredibly talented and execute well. And that seems to be Burden of a Day's saving grace. "Pilots and Paper Planes", the group's debut for Blood and Ink records is full on explosion of emo, metal and hardcore and is done to a T.

Furious heavy hitters like the opener "For Tomorrow We Die" and "Escapism As An Art Form" are obviously the band doing what they do best. The riffs that the guitarists piece together are tight and cohesive, and yet have an undeniable melodic nature in their construction. The Underoath and Beloved comparisons are pretty spot on. When the vocalist screams his lungs out saying "Cowboys Never Die" on the second track "High Noon", you really feel his emotions. Same goes for when the band slips into the obligatory melodic sections in every song. The Taking Back Sunday comparison is entirely true. While they aren't a direct ripoff (or maybe they are) the vocals are rough and emotional (even when their off key). That's something I appreciate about the record overall, because I've always been the kind of listener who is more into the feeling a band gives off and their performance, rather then the calculated effect of their sound. I mean look at some of the best records from this screamo/metalcore genre of the last few years (Poison The Well's "Opposite of December" and Killswitch Engage's "Alive Or Just Breathing"). It has been stated often by the bands that the guitars were out of tune and the vocals were off on both of those recordings. However some of the best music has been made this way. Combine the strength of the guitars and the roughness of the vocals with an incredibly talented rhythm section (the drumming in particular really shines on this recording) and Burden of a Day has already created a formula for success...

But unfortunately so have so many other bands of this kind. That's the only thing that is bad about this record. It's absolutely nothing new or groundbreaking. It's just done very well. As someone who liked screamo and metalcore when it was new on the scene a few years ago, even I have to admit I'm getting pretty bored with it. "Pilots and Paper Planes" may have been an extremely strong record if it was released about 3 years ago, but in today's time it's probably going to be a record that gets forgotten once the trend passes. It's a shame too because these guys are incredibly talented. Originality just isn't in their corner.

Overall though "Pilots and Paper Planes" is pretty much the ideal screamo/hardcore fan's album. It perfects everything the genre has been building upon for the last few years. The band is extremely talented, and there are plenty of standout tracks ("For Tomorrow We Die", "Escapism As An Artform", "Lost In The Shuffle"), just don't expect anything new. For my money though I can't complain, this is a really good record. I hope this is only the beginning for the band.

Well, this cd is pretty good. I was lucky enough to pre order this copy and i got there two T's along with it. I wasn't dissappointed with this cd being a debut. It's kind of like UnderOath meeets something else, can't really put my finger on it


BUT WHO CARES

it rocks anyways
pick it up and give it a listen...only thing i was a little put down by was Cupid Missed His Mark, I liked the demo version a tad bit better, it jsut seemed to have more energy, but otherwise its still good

this cd has the perfect blend of everything it is seriously perfect go buy it right now you will NOT be dissapointed.