August Burns Red
Found In Far Away Places

August Burns Red have been in the upper echelons of the global metalcore scene for years, a band that is artistically and humanly untouchable. Musicians so professional they're almost boring, and with such an easy approach to fans that they seem almost like ordinary mortals, even though they're not. Because when you encounter a work like “Found In Far Away Places” (their first release under the giant Fearless Records), you understand how only a few bands can evolve and advance a sound track by track. And the Pennsylvania band has released quite a few productions (seven, including a Christmas concept album), reaching levels that seemed unsurpassable in “Leveler” or “Messengers” released years ago. Well, with this new record, August Burns Red have once again broken the mold, focusing mainly on variety and power. In “Found In Far Away Places”, the quintet seems to have had a lot of fun, churning out myriad riffs and offering a wide array of stylistic solutions that have little to do with metalcore. We're talking about an album where folk, acoustic, and post influences blend with the band’s established breakdown power and a way of interpreting metal that they and few others in the core genre have in their DNA. It may be cliché to say, but every track here is never banal, and when dealing with a country interlude in “Majoring in the Minors”, the extreme ability to be direct in “Identity” and making Jeremy Mckinnon’s performance (frontman of A Day To Remember) in “Ghosts” become secondary, well there's little else to say but chapeau. We're certainly not talking about a seminal band, but what JB Brubaker has achieved on guitar is truly astonishing, a myriad of solutions and scenarios that show how the Augusts are at least a cut above the competition. In October, they will come to Europe for a tour that will see them supporting only Asking Alexandria (a rather questionable choice), but which will surely bring even more enjoyment to those who have come to appreciate a fantastic album like “Found In Far Away Places”!