4 out of 5

Label: V2

Producer: Ross Robinson

Some groups thrive or flail underneath the production of an album, suggesting it’s Band Identity as Priority #1, thus relegating the recorder to either strong-arm tactics overtop or just play along.  Some groups’ sound morphs along with the man or woman behind the boards (y’know… randomly I realize I’m not aware of many ‘name’ female producers.  hm.), leading to the image of band and producer working together – consciously or not – to deliver something that could only have come out of that particular arrangement.  Factoring in the brash chaotics of Blood Brothers’ live shows and first EP, it’s good that they slot into the latter category, as its allowed them to mold their sound over the years, funneled through the ‘hands’ of several super talented mixin’ dudes.  Matt Bayles gave ‘Adultery’ his smooth electro metal sheen, and John Goodmanson applied his sense of organics to ‘Crimes’ and ‘Machetes’.

Metal star-maker Ross Robinson does his pump-up-the-bass best to make ‘Burn, Piano Island’ into as poppy of a record as the Bloods could’ve made.  On first listen the shattered intro of ‘Guitarmy’ and the mad flashes of noise of ‘I Know Where the Canaries and the Crows Go’ (which definitely looks forward to some of the blistering tracks on ‘Machetes’) may seem like anything but pop, but the stripped-down bass breakdowns are straight from Ross’ Korn playbook, and he gets our dual vocalists to tune their sounds to more recognizable metal levels – Johnny Whitney’s girlish yelps are reigned in somewhat, and Jordan is pushed the opposite way, playing the screamy loud guy instead of his more menacing atonal shouts.  This sounds like a criticism and it kinda is… ‘Burn’ was my first Blood Brothers album and it does sound like a radio bid, as slick as it sounds under Robinson’s clean style.  However, once I was more familiar with the band and realized that they hadn’t just jumped on the screamo bandwagon, returning to the disc I find so, so much to love, and instead I want to thank Ross for getting the group to twist their hardcore style into oddly catchy gems like ‘USA Nails’ and ‘The Salesman, Denver Max’.

Lyrically things are still all over the map, super surreal stories that half make sense and half feel like pure imagery, but it’s almost always effective.  Not quite as much as the sharpened metaphors on ‘Crimes’ and ‘Machetes’, some of the themes getting a little lost, but on the whole, ‘Every Breath is a Bomb,’ ‘The Shame’…  You might not know exactly what they’re shrieking about, but you feel it in your gut and want to shriek along.  Speaking of ‘Shame’, this steps beyond the confines of Ross’ teachings and becomes a standout Blood Brothers track.  It’s a devastating closer with atypical sensible (and effective) lyrics with music that volleys between almost delicate passages and aggressive, megaton blasts, volleying back and forth before wrapping around to a moving, harmonizing closer… though it bitchily just cuts out in the middle of a chorus repetition.  Both of the following albums had similarly structured tracks, but they still feel like hardcore / punk tracks, whereas ‘Shame’ is its own genre-bending thang.

So ‘Burn’ is a little tighter than the albums before or after it, which makes it a bit more palatable and thus a little less (delightfully) harsh, but it’s still The Blood Brothers, and still creative leagues above most of the ‘screamo’ crowd.  I’m glad they found Goodmanson for the albums after this, though its a wonderful world where we can get screamy dudes to make an album that sorta makes you want to bop and tap your toe.