Brighter Than A Thousand Suns

Survival Machines

Written by: TL on 25/01/2012 21:55:42

When Secret And Whisper decided to break up their band, I was pretty damn bummed, because I loved the shit out of their two albums (1,2). So when I found out that a quartet from New Milford, Connecticut, was on the rise, featuring a similar guitar sound, a female singer, and a bandname borrowed from an Iron Maiden song, I quickly got interested, which, a while down the road, has lead to this review of "Survival Machines", the first LP release by Brighter Than A Thousand Suns.

As usual, I'll get straight to the point and say that indeed, instrumentally, these guys sound so much like either Secret And Whisper or Saosin (or both) that it can be hard to see where their inspiration ends and originality begins. For beginners, this means we're in the super-melodic corner of post-hardcore, recently also called "ambient rock", for its tendency to feature loads of atmospheric programming alongside the usual bright and shiny guitar riffs. Vocally as well, frontwoman Angelika Hirsch probably sounds as much as S&S singer Charles Furney as any woman possibly can - which probably has to do with similar production tricks as well I suspect - and yet, the vocal department is where the main twist to this band is added, seeing as Hirsch both alternates between cleans and harrowing banshee screams on her own, while bassist Alex Anderson also takes turns at clean singing.

These vocal dynamics work well, and give the band a wider palette to paint with than many of their more obvious comparisons... So why does their album still feel like listening to Secret & Whisper-lite? To be honest, I'm not perfectly sure, but things just feel a tad more formulaic and samey on "Survival Machines", when comparing it to any of the two S&S albums, both of which had the tendency to continually throw such blistering instrumentals in your face, that you were too busy eargasming to really notice what's going on.

And that's really my main gripe with Brighter Than A Thousand Suns. Despite the obvious differences, their music still sounds so much like Saosin and Secret And Whisper, that it's hard not to compare and notice their shortcomings, which can also party be found in the department of hooks. Here I observe that it is probably no coincidence that the band has chosen "Crossing The Divide" and "Walls Made Of Glass" to champion them on various streaming services, as those are far and away the catchiest numbers on offer. The problem with "Survival Machines" as an album then, is that the remaining songs too often sound like slightly weaker variations on the same songs, and diversity isn't easily found. The band undeniably has an engaging sound though, and if they can expand it just a little, while refining their songwriting as well, maybe they'll have more luck making me forget about making references on their next album?

7

Download: Crossing The Divide, Walls Made Of Glass
For The Fans Of: Secret And Whisper, Eyes Set To Kill, Saosin, VersaEmerge, Flee The Seen
Listen: facebook.com/brighterthan1000suns

Release Date 03.10.2011
Tragic Hero Records

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.