PREY ON LIFE

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"Prey On Life" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Swedish progressive post hardcore act Burst. The album was released in September 2003 by Relapse Records. Burst showed great progress and will to experiment with their sound on the preceeding "In Coveting Ways (2002)" EP but "Prey On Life" show Burst when they are at the top of their game. I was introduced to Burst through their 4th full-length studio album "Origo (2005)" which absolutely blew me away and purchasing "Prey On Life" was just a matter of course after the positive experience of listening to "Origo".

The music on "Prey On Life" is intriguing on many levels. First of all it´s a pretty extreme album. The vocals by Linus Jägerskog are especially extreme. I struggle to come up with a vocalist with a more caustic and aggressive delivery. This one is a blood cougher. Just the way I like my extreme metal vocals. Don´t get the wrong impression here and assume that the vocals are growls though. They are raw hardcore shouting/ yelling. The clean vocals which Burst would start using more on later releases are only featured shortly in the track "Crystal Asunder". The music itself is very energetic and while rooted in hardcore, Burst take that style and twists it completely into something of their own. References to acts such as The Ocean, Converge and the post hardcore pioneers in Breach are valid enough but Burst stand out from the crowd as something special IMO. As mentioned above the music is very aggressive but at the same time it´s also very melodic. The two guitarists compliment each other very well and it´s seldom they play the same notes. The bass and the drums are technically well played and adventurous.

Besides the high level of musicianship it´s the songwriting that needs to be praised the most. Innovative and adventurous are two words that come to mind when trying to describe the music on "Prey On Life". The album is a kind of loose musical concept with a recurrent theme in the intro track "Undoing ( Prey on Life)", the intermezzo track "Fourth Sun" that divides the album in two and the outro track "Epidemic". Picking favorites is hard for me because I adore the album as a whole but the first three songs (excluding the intro) "Iris", "Sculpt the Lives" and "Rain" are simply outstanding aggressive and technical/ progressive post hardcore tracks. Especially the latter mentioned is pure genious in my book. "Monument" and "Visionary" also need special mentions.

The production is powerful and while it´s clean enough to be able to differenciate what the instruments do at any given time it´s also raw and hits like a hammer.

From the first time I listened to "Prey On Life" I knew this album was something special. To me it´s a magical album that´s able to move my body (my head bangs and my body moves in spastic jerks) and challenge my mind at the same time. What´s even more fantastic about the album is that it keeps getting better and better each time I listen to it. I seem to discover new things every time. "Prey On Life" is an outstanding album in my book and if you need an introduction to post hardcore, I´d strongly recommend that you make "Prey On Life" one of your first purchases. Burst have developed and refined their sound on subsequent albums but the raw power of "Prey On Life" is something I dare say they will never achieve again. This album is a pure masterpiece IMO. High quality musicianship, a powerful production and outstanding and innovative compositions. A 5 star rating couldn´t be more deserved. And hell yeah you can call me a fanboy and I´ll stand proud.