Act Of Defiance - Birth And The Burial

Published September 14 2015

*=Staff's pick	Throwback Legion Of Lies Thy Lord Belial Refrain And Re-Fracture* Dead Stare Disastrophe (A New Reality) Poison Dream* Obey The Fallen Crimson Psalm Birth And The Burial

Genre	Thrash Metal	Henry Derek	Vocals
Tracks	10	Chris Broderick	Guitar
Running time	47 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Metal Blade	Matt Bachand	Bass
Release	August 21, 2015	Shawn Drover	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Chris "Zeuss" Harris
Similar artists	---

Since I had not heard a single tone of this recently formed band before I started to listen to Birth And The Burial and I had neither barely read anything as well, except that this unit includes two former Megadeth members, a former vocalist of Scar The Martyr and a Shadow's Fall guitarist now functioning as this band's bassist, I must say that the musical direction comes out as somewhat a surprise to me, because it's definitely more brutal on several moments than what I first expected of it.

A lot of people will probably assume, like I wrongly or simplistically did, that this music mostly will target listeners of Megadeth, since it's the most known band of the member's past, but Act Of Defiance unquestionably takes the major part of things one or two steps heavier into a more raging overall appearance. Although the record holds some variation, it's not something that I would like to call a varied experience, because these guys certainly know how to come out crushing and therefore a lot of the contents at first glance look pretty forged in one piece.

The vocals of Henry Derek are to most extent violent and angry and I kind of have a hard time to really grow fond of what he presents on this album. I think some of his guttural work feels strained and a little incapacious, whilst I at the same time frankly think that he's more capable of coming out tenable with his cleaner vocals. The guitar playing of Chris Broderick is nevertheless quite remarkable to my ears, because I really like the way that he projects his heavy riffing and his tones full of hooks.

As a whole, I actually prefer the less rabid songs, where the band in my eyes manages to find its most accurate results in the music. None of this record is bad, but still they aren't really able to execute when push comes to shove. In the end I think that it's a satisfactory outcome, but to me it's like they build up things to a certain level, stay there and somehow can't bring the greatest moments all the way out to my speakers.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	6	6	5	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe