Album Review: Burn Halo

April 30, 2009 by Editor
Filed under 2009 Releases, Album Reviews

Burn Halo
Burn Halo

Release Date: March 31, 2009
Record Label: Rawkhead Rekords

Review:

Many tend to classify Rock and Roll bands by how they sound compared to the bands which came before them. Using that methodology, Burn Halo’s music could be placed into the Guns N’ Roses, Saving Abel, or Tantric category of bands.

If you favor straight-forward riff-oriented hard rock, you might like this album a lot. The guitar driven tunes are catchy, and this group certainly knows how to rock-out. This is great music to crank up the volume and roll the windows down in your car for a cruise. The band plays well and the production is tight.

My issues with Burn Halo are rooted in the near demise of the hard rock/metal scene in the early 1990′s. The bands and the music had become so decadent and shallow that they nearly killed the entire genre. Some would rather blame the grunge movement, but the reality is that people craved something different, and with more substance.

George Santayana once wrote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I see many trends in today’s music that mimic what was going on in the late 1980′s. This album, unfortunately, highlights some of those trends. The lyrics for “Dirty Little Girl” are so archaic that it’s almost as if Kip Winger wrote them for the band.

I think Burn Halo has a great sound for a band. James Hart has a killer voice, and the rest of the band plays the hell out of their instruments. They just need to stop trying to write the next cookie-cutter song about drugs or sex, because we already have one Buckcherry, and one is enough.

Track Listing: