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Acres

Burning Throne

Written by: PP on 06/04/2023 11:01:10

British-style post-hardcore and metalcore carry themselves with a distinct flavor that sets them apart from their American counterparts. Think about the melodies by bands like Architects, Devil Sold His Soul, Bury Tomorrow, While She Sleeps, et al. What they all have in common are soaring atmospherics and melodic choruses that are expansive and far-reaching. The same applies to Acres and their sophomore album "Burning Throne", which is essentially a post-hardcore album with a few metalcore segments added in for good measure.

Much like their counterparts, they rely on dramatically soaring clean vocals with plenty of rougher screams for contrast. It's a classic clean/scream dynamic, where Acres go for additional theatrical value in terms of how grandiose and lofty their soundscape is. A good example is "Hold On", an echoing post-hardcore anthem that features huge melodies and an infectiously catchy chorus. The title track is likewise a clean-vocal driven, expansive piece that here recalls material by Saosin and Circa Survive, so the more emo variety of post-hardcore bands, albeit in a slightly heavier format.

One of the critiques for "Burning Throne" has been that it's quite samey. The high-flying soaring anthems are there for pretty much every song, and while they are good, they do blend in together towards the end somewhat. That's why it's good to have songs like "Visual Hallucinations" as well, which bring about soothing, string instrument-driven atmospherics and faded vocals in a balladic setting. Likewise, the slowly creeping "My Everything" is one of those where your heart wants to scream along to the chorus.

"Burning Throne" is characterized by excellent production - almost Nuclear Blast-ish - which leaves a perfect balance between the heavy guitars and percussion, and Ben Lumber's crisp cleans that are the key selling point of Acres. If you like your post-hardcore with plenty of uplifting melodies and high-flying choruses but still want to maintain a degree of heaviness to the instrumentation, then Acres is a perfect midpoint between something like Circa Survive and Bury Tomorrow.

Download: Burning Throne, Hold On, Nothing, My Everything
For the fans of: Bury Tomorrow, Circa Survive, Devil Sold His Soul, Architects, Dayseeker
Listen: Facebook

Release date 03.03.2023
A Wolf At Your Door Records