Bury Tomorrow - Runes

(CD Album Review)

***1/2
Bury Tomorrow go for gold on their third album.

Having been gaining constant popularity since their 2009 debut 'Portraits', Bury Tomorrow return with their third album. As musical history dictates the third album is the maker or breaker. Time will tell but suspect in this instance it will be the former. 'Runes' mixes all aspects of what's been going on in the last ten or so years as in what started as Hardcore evolving into Metalcore. Taking the formula of heavy verses followed by a big, melodic, anthemic chorus. To Bury Tomorrow's credit they now what they want to do and they pull it off well. Many of the bands detractors concentrate too much on what the band aren't and what they are not doing but miss the point that maybe they are not trying to be those things.

My little qualm is that they are a British band that sound totally American, I know that's something I bring up often but it does bother me and it would have been nice if the album's heavy parts were a bit more aggressive but that aside 'Runes' is very strong. It' is a little mix of As I Lay Dying and the Punk driven anthem's of the criminally under rated Evergreen Terrace. It doesn't score high in terms of originality but the material on offer is strong and achieves exactly what it set out to do and that's make big, hook driven anthem's to be played in front of big crowd's and these tracks will go down well with big festival crowds and the bands core fanbase which seems to be growing at a rapid rate. Tracks like 'The Torch' and the single 'Man on Fire', which do stick with you after you listened to them.

I think with Bury Tomorrow their choruses are their main strength and I can see why a lot of the new generation of Metal fans like them, but they aren't a band that are reinventing the wheel. But the question is do they really want to, What they have done is taken the Metalcore formula and done their best to perfect it to make a strong consistent album which will serve who it's intended for perfectly. If you are a fan of the new breed of Metalcore / Hardcore bands like While she Sleeps, Of mice & Men, Miss May I, The Word Alive and Attack, Attack! then I think you should check out Bury Tomorrow.

Review by Joe Denby