August Burns Red released their new album ‘Phantom Anthem’ in october 2017. First impression: overwhelmingly good musical quality, plus improved vocals from lead singer Jake Luhrs. A lot of energy comes form this album. You can hear that every single word and every single beat comes form the heart. It’s overwhelming, in a good way. It’s intense. this album will eat you alive if you don’t stand up to it.

The album starts of with the dark song ‘King of Sorrow’. The one sentence that stands out the most in the song is: ‘Open the door, Let me in’! It sounds like depression was poured into the form of a person. A person that’s happy to see the other one in vain.

‘Open the door, let me in
I need you, you need me too
Open the door, let me in
Let me in
I am the king, the king of sorrow
I am the king, the king of sorrow
Bow to me now, give me your tears
I am the king, king of sorrow’

‘Hero of the Half Truth’ refers to the people that feed themselves on lies. The “Vultures”. If you let them in, they can destroy you form the inside. The one lyric that pop’s in to eyesight is “They will show no mercy” later followed by “We will show no mercy”. Don’t give up the fight you’re fighting.

‘Wishing we could take it all back
The beasts in your pack are the worst ones to attack
Change course and use a different track
The beasts in your pack are the worst to attack
They will show no mercy
They will show no mercy

…

We’ll rip and shred every word you say, every word you say
We will show no mercy
We will show no mercy
We will show no mercy
We will show no mercy’

The moments where the guitars go from attack to defense mode is a real beautiful experience. Just a moment to relax, take a breath, hear the music. And then, after a stunning solo, it goes to attack mode again and the heartbeat goes back up. ‘Lifeline’, ‘Float’ and ‘Carbon Copy’ for example are songs that give you that experience. A dark rumble is being heard. It’s putting you on the edge of your chair. Then the ‘Invisible Enemy’ comes out and screams it’s sorrow right into your face. ‘Coordinates’ starts of with clean guitars and a kind of a peaceful feeling. Then it switches back full power electric guitars and scream vocals.

After 7 albums, I think we can call this epic switch the signature August Burns Red sound. It’s fluently done and absolutely no rough parts are being heard. It’s all fluently played and like I said before, straight form the heart.

The song ‘Invisible Enemy’ received a Grammy nomination in 2017 in the category ‘Best Metal Performance’. August Burns Red unfortunately didn’t receive the Grammy. It went to Megadeth instead, with their song ‘Dystopia’. All in all ‘Phantom Anthem’ is an overwhelmingly good album with a dark touch, that has the signature August Burns Red sound. A beautiful album that is brought to you with heart and soul.

Release date: October 6th 2017
Label: Fearless Records
Tracklist:
01 King of Sorrow
02 Hero of the Half Truth
03 The Frost
04 Lifeline
05 Invisible Enemy
06 Quake
07 Coordinates
08 Generations
09 Float
10 Dangerous
11 Carbon Copy