Burn the Ocean – Modern Ruins
Release Date: 24th February 2023
Label: ARGONAUTA Records
Pre-Order
Genre: Post Grunge, Rock.
FFO: Modern Rock, Velvet Revolver, Soundgarden, Silverchair, Buckcherry.
Review By: Mark Young
A change of pace for yours truly with Burn The Ocean as they present their take on modern rock. Being honest, I have no real interest in revisiting 90s grunge which in most cases was a re-tread of 70s rock (Straight from Mike Muir, Suicidal Tendencies circa 1993) so I wasn’t too excited to give this a spin.
And in all honesty, it’s not too bad as an impartial reviewer. It leans more to Velvet Revolver and 90s Bon Jovi (there, I said it) than the Seattle sound you associate with grunge and has muscular riffing and singing that would not have been out of the place on the radio at that time. The first track comes and goes quickly, and the second track then does almost the same thing, with some decent Soundgarden type licks in there. The issue is that the following songs don’t grab you, and you start playing musical bingo where you are mentally ticking off certain ideas you knew could be on display here.
And here lies the problem, it is predictable.
I can appreciate the effort that has gone into the album and that they consider this to be their best so far, but if you have lived through that period, you will recognise when a band is trying just too hard to sound or be something that they are not. I’m not being overtly snarky with that comment because as I said before the music here is played to a decent standard for this genre and the vocals have the right amount of rock in their delivery but overall, the album occupies a position where it doesn’t offer anything new on what has gone before. There isn’t a lot of variation here between songs (in my opinion and bear in mind, everyone has one) so when a song like The Botch comes on with a sub-Black Sabbath arrangement and really goes for it then this just makes you think why they couldn’t have done this all the way through. There are some good ideas here and a couple of effective tracks, but not enough for me. In Solitude is another that just stomps its way into a soft standstill before climbing back to start kicking again. The ending track, Necessary Pain, has a real Alice In Chains Vibe to it, but it is not enough to save it in my eyes.
1. Almost Gone
2. Precious Things
3. Knives
4. Confined
5. Plastic Wisdom
6. The Botch
7. Morning Light
8. The Ruins
9. In Solitude
10. Necessary Pain
(3 / 5)
