CD Review: Blackburner – Feel The Burn

Written by Sebastian Huhn Saturday, 05 May 2012 16:09

Artist: Blackburner
Title: Feel The Burn
Genre: Dubstep
Release Date: 10th April 2012
Label: Hypnotic Records

Album Review

BLACKBURNER is a project founded by producer Skyla Talon and initial releases met with enormous success, seeing it topping the ITunes electronic charts for instance. 'Feel The Burn' is the first full-length. Starting with 'Easter Death Bunny', the route for the rest of the album seems pretty much set. Embedded in the familiar drum patterns and enriched with glitch elements, the song makes for quite an unspectacular start of the album. 'Dust Eater' kicks it off with a mellow piano line before veering into heavier waters afterwards, always coupled with a spherical melody in the background. 'Back In Black' is the AC/DC track gone Dubstep. Not sure if I will ever come to like the mixture of the original intermixed with glitches and bass gravitations. Sometimes it's better to leave the original original. The title track soars up to heavenly spheres until crushing down back on Earth in a blink, returning to the more conventional dubstep ingredients. You've got to hand it to him though that he plays well with contrasts on that one.

Another classic that has undergone electronic surgery with LED ZEPPELIN's 'Kashmir'. While the introduction eaves a fairly good impression, building up some tension it falls back on standard recipe later on. I think it's not an overstatement to call 'Adagio Glitch' a dubstep symphony. It couples elements of classical music with the pulsing electronics of the genre and succeeds in creating an intriguing track with it. 'Prometheus', if nothing else, strikes with its roaring guitar riffs. 'Freak You' for a dubstep track is a rather straightforward affair and the textured intermezzos really add a special bit to the otherwise standard track. The album's closing track 'Disambiguation' is one killer track to close the disc. It is, other than many of the album's songs, a really explosive and thrilling mixture of electronics. For the lucky ones with the bonus disc, the journey doesn't end there yet, but goes on for another good hour with a DJ marathon mix.

I never understood all the buzz made around this particular style of music. Except for the glitches which you can find in other genres forever already, this is plain, bass-laden dance music. All those feelings aside, the album's not as underwhelming as I'd expected it to be some good ideas pop up here and there. If you're a fan of the genre there's probably no way around this.


Tracklist

01. Easter Death Bunny - 4:21
02. Dust Eater - 3:58
03. Back in Black (Vicious Dubstep Mix) - 4:07
04. Feel the Burn (feat. Sister Alice) - 3:34
05. Tony Montana - 4:03
06. Kashmir (Acid Particle Mix feat. Edgar Froese) - 4:06
07. The Devil is Real (feat. ModelSaint) - 4:11
08. Adagio Glitch - 4:56
09. Prometheus (feat. John Wesley) - 4:09
10. Freak You - 5:15
11. Pumped Up Kicks (genXocide Mix) - 5:01
12. World of Dreams - 4:04
13. Disambiguation - 4:26

Bonus Disk:
01. DJ Mix - 1:00:36


Line-Up

Skyla Talon


Website

http://www.facebook.com/blackburner.music


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 6
Sound: 7
Extras: -
Total: 6.5 / 10


Buy the album here!