4 out of 5

Label: Kirtland

Producer: David Castell, Vaden Todd Lewis, and Taz Bentley

Yes, if you like The Toadies, you’ll feel at home, but Burden Brothers are able to rock in just a more direct way than The Toadies, stripped of the funk vibe that bubbles through Vaden’s other group.  From the opener – the title track – a blazing speed thrash of drum and guitars and VTL’s awesomely powerful vocal work – it’s apparent that the BB’s are a notch up on the chain.  What this opens up, though, is access to slightly more straight forward songs as well, such as ‘Beautiful Night’ and ‘Come On Down.’  There’s nothing wrong with these songs, and they’re executed by masterful artists on every level – everyone rockin’ the freck out in sync, the production crystal clear (I love Rob Schnapf’s production on the first two Toadies albums, but it tries to stress the pop/funk over the thrash) – but they’re somewhat standard in structure, and thus sound better surrounded by the A+ tracks.  Besides the slight genre shift, these aren’t Toadies songs – the gang vocals on the amazingly catchy ‘You’re So God Damn Beautiful’ and the church-like chanting on the moving closer ‘Let It Go’ wouldn’t feel right for a Toadies disc, giving Burden Brothers a distinct identity.

41 minutes is the usual length for an album, but you can spin this disc over and over, it blazes by so quickly and so effectively.  The greatest credit is the distinctness of each track – even the filler tracks aren’t easily confused amongst each other; the choruses, the riffs, the beats, are all so varied and well spaced out from hardcore thrash to sway-your-hands-rockers that your ears never get tired of listening.  Vaden’s lyrics always hover on the edge of creepy/interesting, but generally stick to the regular rock cynical topics.  The Burden lyrics are bit more linear, but you give me a chorus I want to yell and that’s worth a lot.

The disc simply rocks.  You fine with that?