Oneonethousand

As far as screamo metalcore goes, Sarasota's Burden of a Day takes a step forward from their earlier releases, with harder breakdowns, stronger dynamics, and an improved melodic sureness, but a sense of sameness pervades the entire affair. New vocalist Kyle Tamosaitis has a more mature, expressive voice than his predecessor Kendall Knepp, coming across like a young folk's mash-up of Journey's Steve Perry and Linkin Park's Chester Bennington. That is, of course, when he's singing; his gruff screaming is just average, it gets old almost immediately, and is derivative of so many other throaty howlers in a genre that is well past its prime and perhaps "best-by sell-by date." Post-metal kids will be pleased enough with the machine-gun tempos, storming drums, and overall sense of angsty urgency, but otherwise there's not much to differentiate one song from the next, and whenever Tamosaitis gets into a screaming passage, an overall weakness in form and function is revealed. While OneOneThousand will probably only find favor among screamo fans, the melodic passages of the album and the fine, non-screamed vocals of Tamosaitis suggest Burden of a Day could be capable of greater things if they shed some genre conventions. ~ Tim DiGravina