Review: Truth & Its Burden – Sending the Hope Home

Sergio reviews Truth & Its Burden’s Sending The Hope Home.

Artist Name: Truth & Its Burden
Album Name: Sending The Hope Home
Year: 2009
Genre: Hardcore

After the local postal service completely raped my parcel (luckily, they didn’t chew the disc, but I’m pretty sure they stole part of the jewel case to use as a crack pipe), I finally received my rain soaked package of Truth & Its Burden’s Sending The Hope Home.

Already pretty upset at the state of my mail, I tossed the album into the CD player, grumbling and cursing while I tried to piece together the ripped CD release sheet. Nearly 5 minutes later, I threw my hands up to the sky and thanked God – at long last, I had finally found a hardcore band that didn’t just chug on an open C# and was much more than the “be positive or we’ll kick your ass with our sub-standard music” mentality!

While Truth & Its Burden stays true to their hardcore roots (breakdowns and distinctive vocal style) they also introduce a much more progressive metal sound that is very reminiscent of Protest The Hero. On top of that, there are definitely traces of King Diamond and Cradle of Filth influences – mostly due to the tremolo picking sections that add so much more oomph to the songs.

Speaking of guitar work, Truth & Its Burden’s axe skill is simply extraordinary. I’d recommend just buying the album to listen to the transition from brutal to melody and then back to brutal. For example, ‘Means to Begin’ is pure violence that escalates into a melodic number much like something from Haste The Day.

I do believe that Sending The Hope Home could have been better mixed and mastered, but overall it is a good indication of the band’s talent. Truth & Its Burden should definitely consider sending their album to Prosthetic Records, because they’d be right at home on that label. Check them out.

Best Tracks: ‘Means to Begin’, ‘Set In Flight’, and ‘Obstacle’

77/100

- Sergio Pereira
sergio@musicreview.co.za
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