After The Burial - Wolves Within, Review

Hey everyone! This is our inaugural post and we thought, what better way to start things off than with review of a brand new album! The new After The Burial album was released today so we've decided to talk about it. After The Burial is a progressive deathcore band from the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Their new album has been pretty highly anticipated and with good reason, before the album dropped you were able to hear three songs, Anti-Pattern, Of Fearful Men, and A Wolf Amongst Ravens, all killer. I'm going to do my track by track review and then AJ will and we'll give you our score out of 5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD4RGwf0kCw&list=PLH22-xSMERQqkZJBwjScNJRQ5HH8219U_ That's a link to the album stream, enjoy!

Jake's Track by Track

Anti-Pattern - AtB comes out swinging with the first track on the album. Very aggressive song right out of the gate. I think that this is a good song, not the best on the album, but it's a good choice for an album opener in my opinion.

Of Fearful Men - Fantastic track, really pulls together the one two punch with Anti-Pattern. More aggressive than Anti-Pattern. It's also a lot more bouncy and moshable. Another thing that I like about this one is that they let their progginess shine in this song. The song also reminds me a lot of Berzerker, and that's not a bad thing by any means.

Pennyweight - Ah, you know this one didn't really do it for me like the others. It was an ok song, but it wasn't fantastic, didn't really get me too excited. The guitar was nice, I like their tone, but it was a bit too slow feeling to me.

Disconnect - This one was also a bit on the boring side. To me it was too... rocky? emotional? I feel like either of those words or a combination of the two would describe the song pretty well. There were some technical runs in there that tickled my fancy, but overall? Meh.

Nine Summers - Nine Summers is much better than the previous two tracks, I'd like to start with that. It's more aggressive and more metal feeling than Pennyweight and Disconnect and it still has a really great groove to it, great track.

Virga - Another pretty good one. I don't think it's on the same level as some of the other songs on the album but it's still good. There are some parts where the vocals don't really do it for me. The breakdowns are nice though.

Neo Seoul - I feel like they were trying to sound like this on the songs that I didn't like. The song is not as in your face as some of the other ones but it's every bit as good. This song is fantastic, definitely one of the best on the album.

Parise - This is a fantastic driving song. The riffs seem like they'd be best enjoyed with the windows down in July. I'm also really into that funky bass at about 3 minutes.

A Wolf Amongst Ravens - This was the lead single for the album and it was a good choice. It's a really good song, although, it is very different from the other songs on the album. It's more "epic" than the other songs on the album. I don't mean epic in the circa 2008 "dude, these nachos are fucking epic" sense, what I meant to get across is that there's a lot of shit going on with this song, it's written differently than the others but I still really dig it.

Best Track: For me it was between Of Fearful Men and Neo Seoul but I'm going to go with Of Fearful Men, A Wolf Amongst Ravens is an honorable mention though.

Score: 4/5. Really good overall but there were some parts that didn't totally rock my socks.

-Jake

AJ's Track by Track 

Anti-Pattern – Pretty disappointing track in my opinion. I enjoyed the 15 second drum intro but other than that I think it’s pretty boring. It’s my least favorite track on the album.

Of Fearful Men – Great track, really aggressive and technical. This track straight up shreds! It sounds like something off Rareform. The solo is fantastic! It’s one of the better tracks on the album.

Pennyweight – This track is ok. The guitar tone is nice and the outro is enjoyable but it’s also quite boring. It sounds emotional and I felt something listening to it which is why I would still rank it higher than Anti-Pattern.

Disconnect – This track is good but not great. It is emotional like Pennyweight but unlike Pennyweight this track isn’t boring. It’s technical at times, which I feel benefits the song greatly. It’s a track I won’t be skipping over when I’m listening to this album in my car or on my iPod.

Nine Summers – Great track! The intro really pulls you in. It’s both groovy and technical. The solo in the middle of the track is fantastic! If there’s a track that best describes the sound of this album it’s this track.

Virga – Fantastic track! It has the best intro on the entire album; it’s both fast and technical. The vocals around the 1:30 mark are really annoying but the rest of the song makes up for this. The drum solo around the 2:30 mark is fantastic. It sounds like something off Rareform.

Neo Seoul – Great track! The intro is soft but it works well with song.  The guitar tone is nice and djenty.  It’s one of the better tracks on the album.

Parise – Dat Bass! The guitar sounds great but wow the bass really sticks out on this track. The soft part around the 3 minute mark is quite enjoyable. Great track!

A Wolf Amongst Ravens – Pretty good track. It sounds different compared to the rest of the album. I love the guitar tone. You can bet your ass off that you’ll see lyrics from this song on the back of ATB tees before long. It was good choice for a lead single.

Best Track: It came down to Virga and Of Fearful Men. While both tracks are fantastic in the end I had to go with Virga. Honorable mentions include Neo Seoul, Nine Summers, and Parise.

Rating: 4.5/5 This album really impressed me. It blows In Dreams out of the water. A couple tracks could have been better but overall ATB have created a great album

-AJ