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Brighter Than a Thousand Suns - Survival Machines

Rating

RIYL

The Color Morale
The Word Alive
A Skylit Drive
Broadway

Release Date

09/20/2011

Label

Tragic Hero Records

Tracklist

01. Walls Made of Glass
02. Warcry
03. Survival Machines
04. Crossing the Divide
05. Long Live Impermanence
06. The Inheritance
07. A Creature Bred on Hunger Made Food for Hungry Gods
08. Invisible
09. The Search for Second Earth
10. Sitting on a Time Bomb in Free Fall
11. The Riot of Our Blood and Breath

Users Rating 2 ratings	Your Rating Create an account or log in to rate this album
Recent Ratings
benny06	Rick Gebhardt

Crashing the sausage fest that is the current metalcore scene, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns are your favorite new female-fronted band. And not just because they are female-fronted, mind you. Despite Angelika Hirtler’s talent with both screams and cleans, on Survival Machines the quartet, as a cohesive whole, have put together elven catchy, heavy, and well-written tracks.

The album’s lead single, “Crossing the Divide,” with its melodic approach that leans on clean vocals and delayed guitar lines to carry the song’s melody, actually paints a rather inaccurate picture of the remainder of Survival Machines. You can expect to hear a similar undercurrent of Randy Roswell’s awesome guitar work in most other songs, but cleans are a rarity, usually relegated to the choruses, and often split with bassist Alex Anderson, whose voice isn’t so bad either. Instead, prepare to be bombarded by volley after volley of Hirtler’s capable screams. She’s got great tone and a powerful delivery, unmatched even by a lot of males across the genre.

The songwriting itself isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, but it’s solid, though the album gets a little stale if you’re trying to listen from start to finish. On top of the vocal interplay of Hirtler and Anderson and Roswell’s gifted guitar work, Matt Richter is no slouch behind the kit and doesn’t rely on a constant stream of double bass to give the tracks on Survival Machines some muscle. Just listen to his agility on “Sitting on a Time Bomb in Free Fall.”

At their best, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns give some metalcore giants a real run for their money, but it’s obvious the band is still growing. If you’re in the mood for something different and don’t mind a few hiccups, give Survival Machines a few spins.

--Zach Roth