TWO FACED

"Two faced" is the debut full-length studio album from Swedish post hardcore act Burst. The album was released through Birdnest Records in 1998. Burst are probably mostly known for their later progressive post hardcore releases but the music on this album is more traditional hardcore in style. Burst was founded by Jesper Liveröd (bass, backing vocals), Linus Jägerskog (Lead Vocals), Patrik Hultin (Percussion, background vocals) and Mats Johansson (guitars). Worth mentioning is that Burst was initially only a project band for Jesper Liveröd who was a member of the prolific Swedish grindcore band Nasum until 2003 when he stepped out of Nasum to concentrate full time on Burst.

"Two faced" is more simple and direct than any other release by Burst (I haven´t yet heard the "Shadowcaster" EP from 1996, but I´m pretty sure that one isn´t any more adventurous than this release). Even though the music is close to traditional hardcore there are several traces in the material of the more adventurous style Burst would become known for later on in their career. The melodic nature of Burst´s music is also present on "Two faced" and the trademark aggressive vocal delivery by Linus Jägerskog is also present. The vocals would become even more aggressive on later releases though.

Taken one by one the tracks are simple melodic hardcore tracks of a decent quality, but listening to the whole album I think it feels a bit one-dimensional. One thing you should definitely wait for are the last five minutes of "Cadence of the Faithless" though. After a couple of minutes of silence after the ordinary song ends, Burst play a lot of short primitive hardcore tracks. It´s either recorded live or live in the studio with a very raw sound quality. It reminds me a bit about a band like Discharge. This is probably how Burst sounded when they started out.

The musicianship are generally solid. It´s obvious that these guys can play more complicated things than what is presented here. Drummer Patrik Hultin is especially noteworthy for his energetic precision playing.

The sound production is clear and pretty powerful, but I would have prefered a more raw production for music like this. It´s almost too polished. "Two faced" is overall a decent enough debut album by Burst but it´s nothing out of the ordinary and it´s probably mostly an album for the hardcore fans. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is deserved.