Burden of Grief – “Fields of Salvation”
Well, here’s another band to piss off the purists because this bunch has lots of thrashing guitars, aggression and growled vocals, which is all balanced out with melodic guitar solos. Check out “The Nightmare Within” to see what I mean. This song is pretty much a thrashing blastfest with a very Iron Maiden-inspired guitar solo. If you are thinking that this is similar to old In Flames and Dark Tranquillity or, more currently, Nightrage, you are right in that respect. Obviously, for Burden of Grief, growling and thrashing are not enemies of melodic guitar solos and melody in general. The guitars are downtuned, relatively speaking, so they sound somewhere between thrash and death metal, which is at all times accompanied by melodic riffing and soloing. The result: harsh and melodic songs that are memorable. The title track itself obviously is a good example of the old Gothenburg sound. Therefore, I’d say that fans of melodic thrash/death (or whatever you call it) will be interested in this. Of course, the only problem (depending on your point of view) is that the question of originality is an issue here. However, there’s no denying that the songs are done well by the band. Plus, they are substantially more aggressive than “Gothenburg” bands.