Album Review: August Burns Red – Season of Surrender

Metalcore icons August Burns Red sound better than ever on album number 11. Maybe it’s the (by their own standards) lengthy break they’ve taken since their last, maybe the stylistic revamp they’ve undertaken, or maybe it’s the huge dose of riffs that can be found on Seasons of Surrender. Whatever it is, this latest venture has more bite than a house cat presented with your ankle, and the persistence of a seagull that’s seen your newly purchased punnet of chips.

Opening on Legions, featuring The Devil Wears Prada vocalist Mike Hranica, it’s immediately ever so apparent that this is not an album to be messed with. The intensity with which the track begins and continues is a very positive premonition of what’s to come, especially towards the end as it devolves into a seriously heavy gurn-while-you-headbang stomp-along.

The entirety of Side A feels similarly punishing. The Nameless and Behemoth thunder their way along in brutal fashion, hammering down blow after blow, before the more anthemic Den of Thieves swaggers in to steal a piece of the show. Sonic Salvation opens with the ever-enjoyable discordant guitar line into a half-time beat, and only improves with the welcome inclusion of Polaris vocalist Jamie Hails’ guttural howls topping off a riveting four and a bit minutes.

As the second half of the album pushes incessantly onwards, Make Them Suffer make a fine appearance on Cerebral Malfunction before Whispers like Splinters runs a breakdown training session. Closing up shop on Forged by Failure, there’s finally room to take a breath as the band take nearly seven minutes to show how much heavier they can be with a little sonic contrast thrown into the metalcore madness.

Feeling much like a return to the best of mid-to-late noughties metalcore, Season of Surrender is full of aggressive percussion and squealing guitars that provide a burst of nostalgia but never feel too stuck in their ways. Not only the heaviest album the band has released in years, but one of the best, too.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Parkway Drive, The Ghost Inside, Misery Signals

Season of Surrender is released on May 8th via Fearless Records.