AlbumsNovember 29, 20117,300 views

The Burning Season The Haze of Infatuation


The Haze of Infatuation
01. The Eternal Now MP3 02. Weight of the World 03. A Fate Like Your's 04. Pick Up the Pieces 05. These Things 06. Year of the Cicada 07. Losing My Voice 08. You can't Say Dance on a Record 09. First Glance 10. Watch in Faith
2005 self-released
Our score 5

2/23/2005

When I get albums to review, the first records I usually go for are the ones that I've never heard anything about. I like listening to records when I have no preconceived notions or bias. The Burning Season is a brand new band to my ears, but they have been around since 2001, starting under the name Worlds Apart. The Haze of Infatuation is their first full-length for Eulogy Recordings imprint, Hand of Hope Records. The songs on this album take me back to 1999, which, up until right now, didn't seem that long ago. Wow, six years goes by fast. Anyways, these guys play solid melodic hardcore, with faint touches of metal. It really reminds me of Poison the Well's Opposite of December in a big way. There are some big, chunky breakdowns, and tons of melody. Even the vocals tend to remind me of Poison the Well, with the slightly higher end screams, and some spoken word breaks. There definitely is not as much clean singing going on here as other bands of the genre. It's like The Burning Season refused to move on past the year 2000, and I find it kind of cool, because now it's the same feeling I had in 2000, when I would remember metalcore bands from 1995. Beyond that, this album isn't doing much, but getting the job done. The overall performance on The Haze of Infatuation is air-tight, and this production is crisp and crushing. However, the songs themselves get repetitive to me with the constant barrage of open breakdowns. I can only take so much. The band's sense of melody is superb, and I am wondering what all of this would sound like if they weren't so worried about bashing you over the head with the mosh. A couple of songs have melodic, clean segue-ways, which are very nice. My big complaint is when The Burning Season try to inject a metal component into a song, because it comes off as very amateurish, and quite honestly reminds me of Atreyu, who I'm not a big fan of. I also don't like when the vocalist trys to go low, because it sounds like he's going for a death metal sound, but falls way short. One shining exception in this album is the acoustic, instrumental song, "Losing My Voice." I found this to be very mellow, yet catchy as hell. I would buy an acoustic, instrumental album from these guys any day. I'm not a big fan of the Christian lyrics, but I can look past that, because they are somewhat tasteful. Bottom Line: The Haze of Infatuation has got almost all the elements of a melodic metalcore band, except for overdone, clean singing (which, in this case is a good thing). There just isn't anything here for me to excited about. But I will say that The Burning Season has the chops, and maybe they'll grow into more mature songwriting. This album isn't bad, but it isn't great. I think people who are into older Poison the Well (and Atreyu) but want a band with more balls, would do well to check out The Burning Season.

21 comments

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hxcobd_ 2/23/2005 6:46:56 PM

Terrible review. Should be higher than 5

Orion_ 2/23/2005 7:31:40 PM

This album is much better than this review perceives. I think the songwriting comment is a little off, the lyrics on this record are pretty solid, and the overall song structures are tight. 7/10

thedeadnextdoor_ 2/23/2005 7:35:16 PM

Christian lyrics = total gay , stop playing music and go hump a cross ...DIE

LittleJohn_ 2/23/2005 8:24:02 PM

dis is de bets albom evehr. eye reilly liek dese guiys and will part nuw

har_har_ 2/23/2005 10:15:43 PM

great band, I have their ep when they were worlds apart and got to see them play a show here (they're from the area) with summers end, reflux, and full blown chaos. Met the singer also, nice guy. Can't wait to hear this.

nowicks_hxc_ 2/24/2005 12:38:38 PM

you can't really compare this 5 to other 5s because he basically gave them a good review, just not a big rating.

panzer_ 2/24/2005 4:21:40 PM

5 seems about right. Could just have easily raised it to a 6 or 7 but this is nothing new. Just solid metalcore to swing your fists too in the vein of Martyr AD etc. Nothing wrong with it, just nothing revolutionary or memorable for longer than a year or two.

Its Tragic_ 2/24/2005 7:36:30 PM

yeah, i give some room for bands to be down with god, but as a whole im f*cking done with it, get the f*ck out of here with that shit. I dont care about how you let your imagination run away with you. as for the comment "I think people who are into older Poison the Well (and Atreyu) but want a band with more balls, would do well to check out The Burning Season." Listen older ptw is somewhat a acceptable, but Atreyu? if you f*cking listen to atreyu, youre a f*cking gay and need to g

Its Tragic_ 2/24/2005 7:37:18 PM

But musicly, i thought more along the lines of PTW meets Grade circa "seperate the magnets"

anonymous 2/24/2005 7:40:44 PM

Solid Cd .Hits like no other, should of got a higher rating then a 5 i think.

_ 2/24/2005 8:30:56 PM

keep in mind webmaster decides the score, the reviewer just writes dribble

grindmyass_ 2/24/2005 11:54:32 PM

I have to wonder if the reviewer even LISTENED to this disk... "...has got almost all the elements of a melodic metalcore band, except for overdone, clean singing..." there are clean vocals scattered ALL OVER this disc... "...I think people who are into older Poison the Well (and Atreyu) but want a band with more balls..." Really random band comparisons. These guys don't bring to mind either of those bands... at all. They actually sound alot like another third-tier metalcore band, I

Its Tragic_ 2/25/2005 2:28:08 AM

thats the alternative? Warshiping satan? one or the other huh? How about "im a grown-up and dont believe fairy tails" ?

hxcobd_ 2/25/2005 12:19:16 PM

I'm not sure why people keep bringing up that they're Christian..... hardly any of their songs have Christian connotation..... And they definitely sound nothing like Atreyu or PTW. A lot better than that bullshit.

insideyou_ 2/25/2005 12:22:31 PM

wow, that's funny people care about this band. this MP3 sounds like f*cking garbage to me.

grindmyass_ 2/26/2005 3:59:35 PM

Oh on to the big boy thats all grown up and "doesnt believe in fairytales", Good and Evil, Heaven and Hell, God and Satan have been mainstays in almost all heavy music in general, whether they are affiliated with religious ideals or not, since it's inception - whether you believe in them or not they will still be there for decades to come. The metal community tends to accept every band that flaunts "satan" (whether he exists or is just an ideal - it still represents a theme) and bands that deal

Its Tragic_ 2/27/2005 10:34:59 AM

amen.

xjohhnyhxcx_ 2/28/2005 4:10:32 PM

I like these guys alot.I met them at a show in LA and they were real cool and great to see live.I agree this stuff is not totally original but they do this kind of music better than most and the disc is definately worth pickin up.I think these guys have alot of heart and it shows in their music, gotta give em credit for that.

broccoli is my anti-drug_ 3/11/2005 9:47:28 PM

these dudes listened to skycamefalling and then wrote this album, hell even the last song ends with the line "sit back and watch as the sky falls down"

Strongarm_ 9/5/2005 4:26:32 PM

Hey "insideyou", listen to a band's album before making ignorant judgements you f@cking douchebag. These guys are solid musicians and great guys overall.

anonymous 10/23/2006 9:25:28 PM

There's something to be said about this type of album. sure, it may be a little overdone. it may not be too memorable 3 or 4 years down the road, but it's fun, well played music. this is not a bad album. i'm probably not going to be able to pick it out from the millions of other, simillar acts. it's not groundbreaking, but it's a solid album. the burning season play some good, mosh music (deserving of at least a 6, in my opinion) and these guys are a hell of a lot of fun to see live.