Shai Hulud are one of those great bands. As kids, they listened to some Razor and Rush, and established themselves as torchbearers later in life. Before the pinning mutated and became universally mocked, metallic hardcore was once a light bulb that seemed as natural as Alien and goddamn Predator, (some sad things happened there too.) thanks to bands like Shai Hulud. They just made a lot of fucking sense (and still do with recent releases like Misanthropy Pure.). While the metalcore dinosaur has been in the meteor fallout for over a year, those stubborn bands that decided not to swap their 4/4’s and harmonies for meedle’s and brees have seemingly released equally turgid music. Before this becomes a treatise on the too often explained arrested development of metalcore, we should all agree that southern riffs, and 7 strings are not really helping the cause. It is going to get 2012 on this bitch, and one Shai Hulud is not enough to help us through it. As was stated on 2005’s metalcore contribution Thrill Seeker, “The stars begin to fall.” This is Constellations.
Indeed, August Burns Red is back with a still terrible name, and regardless of that, a hugely anticipated album. It is almost too perfect that they are the current faces of Christian Metalcore (yeah, I know), seeing as they seem to be leading us all to our salvation. JB Brubaker starts things off in “Thirty And Seven” with a major chord, Brent Rambler claws that pick down the neck, and finally Matt Greiner gets the ball into play with a dorky d beat… and it is does not really stop from there. From tracks “Thirty And Seven” to “Crusades”, we are given the generous offering of odd riffs, times, and yeah, a whole lot of the same old same old. There are standouts definitely, such as “Mariana’s Trench”, “The Escape Artist”, and “Rationalist”, each standing alone as metalcore classics for the sole reason that the band seems to have the most familiarity with starting into driving breakdowns and not losing that momentum. The real weak points on this album are when the ball is sharply dropped to break the flow up. Take “Meridian” as a prime example; the song lacks confidence, it’s placement is unnecessary, and it’s crawling pace does not let it open up or evolve… It proves there are two gears on this album: fast or tedious.
Are August Burns Red deserving of the leadership that has been bestowed upon them? Their understanding of rhythm and how to play off kilter time signatures should first and foremost be an example to the abundant influx of post- Meshuggah metallers (a drastic improvement over 2007’s album Messengers). The inspired drum composition on Constellations gives very detailed and methodical subtleties to the polyrhythms, allowing for hi hats and cymbals to intermesh as gracefully as Between The Buried And Me’s Blake Richardson is able to do so. Speaking of the Btbammers, Tommy Rogers phones in a wonky little vocal bridge for “Indonesia”, but it is intriguing nonetheless. In another dimension, if these gentlemen had formed a math rock band instead, they would give Don Caballero a run for their money. Despite such a thorough understanding of composition, the leaps taken often do not make the other side, the pacing is inconsistent, and some passages are not near as hooky as they should be. As energetic and versatile vocalist Jake Luhrs bellows “I used to think I’d last forever” in closing song “Crusades”, August Burns Red are reflexive about their place in the metal community, and understand that their craft is a dying one. These songs have integrity, even if they intermittently do not work. Like Shai Hulud, August Burns Red are goddamn leaders, and metalcore is lucky that they are now the one’s holding the white flag.
(7.2/10)
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