Posted: July 5th, 2008
Contributed By: Nick

	Purchase @ Amazon.com Release Date: April 19th, 2007
	Burning Borders is: Brian Reed (Vocals) Justin Griffiths (Guitar) Chris Brams (Guitar) Kevin Calroppa (Bass) Levi Calroppa (Drums)

Overview: The music scene of Vancouver, Canada has seemingly transformed in the last few years, largely in part to the ever growing populous of bands heading there to record in the studio of mega-producer Brian Howes. If the new CEO of Van Howes Records decides to explore his local land for talent that doesn’t write songs about relationship shit hitting the fan or to promote a major sport, he might be pleased to stumble upon Burning Borders. The group is a cohesion of members from several former bands that rocked Vancouver the way the Canucks cannot, and after all five members were logged in, Burning Borders started getting to work. The quintet became pregnant with a bulk of tunes and started the Pre Natal care of their prize by hitting the studio with producer Tim Neuhaus. La Maz classes aside and without an epidural, Burning Borders gave birth to its bundle of joy in April 2007, named ‘Truth and Logic‘. The band recently released “Sleep” as the first single off their upcoming new album due later this year.

The Good: If this were a game of Pong (not ping-pong, the ORIGINAL Pong), then Burning Borders’ album ‘Truth and Logic‘ would be a rapid-fire bouncy ball stuck in between two spectrums. Who are the two folks controlling each bar?-Burning Borders. The band is able to play tug-of-war with itself with some impressive results. The album starts with “Bottom of a Bottle”; you don’t need to do it for the drugs or do it just to feel alive, because Burning Borders will make the good times roll. Meaty and eclectic, “Bottom of a Bottle” is able to pass through a labyrinth of styles very early on without losing steam or sounding pretentious. The band really has a gift in vocalist Brian Reed, and his magic wand starts to wave on the blistering “Run and Hide”, as his post-grunge, early 90’s alt-rock sound is a powerful engine driving this rather transcendent tune. Reed’s screams on “Run and Hide” give Red’s Michael Barnes an impressive run for his money, keeping the commanding nature of the song going. Reed even outwits Atreyu’s Alex Varkatzas multiple times throughout “Tragedy”, whose blitzkrieging nougat center is made even sweeter by a steady, radio worthy build-up. “Lose Control” is its own entity. The opening seconds of the tune are jolted by a death metal growl, which, in a strange way, acts like rare heard comic relief. As the towering “Lose Control” soldiers on, the stand up act gets even better when Burning Borders, intended or not, mocks a xxhardxcorexx breakdown in the bridge, turning the grin on my face to all out laughter (but in a really good way). “Again” is well placed on ‘Truth and Logic‘, cooling things off with a sensible touch, while the sum of its parts comes next with “Enemy”. The first part of “Enemy” will make ‘Statement’-era Nonpoint fans orgasm, expanding and growing until the very end. The ravenous and savage “Selfish” throws coals back into the boiler, but this is not its crowning achievement. “Lose Control” was kind of like Burning Borders talking smack to the oversaturated metalcore gene-pool, and the band walks the walk through “Selfish”. The song is a nail-splitting tryst that sounds as good, if not better than something a Killswitch Engage or a Silent Civilian could produce, espousing the band’s professionalism and attention to detail. Burning Borders seems to know the way Bo Jackson knows (or rather knew), as the band gives Swedish metal a go during the bridge of the gritty pulse of “Life on Display”; the track’s frenzied, yet calculated thrash rants will keep you on your toes. ‘Truth and Logic‘ goes from hungry Grizzly bear to cuddly Teddy bear with “So Divine”, a harmonious block of sentimental emotion that is never overzealous, giving Burning Borders plenty of room to play for the record’s last hoorah. “Hold Me Down” lets you go, a rock-steady way for ‘Truth and Logic‘ to gradually come to a rest. Burning Borders have done what so many bands of a similar ilk are doing, only they make it sound legit, palpable, and most of all, logical.

The Bad: With so much going on during ‘Truth and Logic‘, it would be easy for Burning Borders to make some careless mistakes, which they have. As far as songs go, the only real stray would be “Animated”, as it sounds like it was assembled from a buffet of other cuts and slopped on the plate. In reality though, Burning Borders could have done without “Again” as well, because “Enemy” takes just about everything “Again” covered and raises the bar; if anything, “Again” should have come much earlier in the record. Switching poles, the final trimester of ‘Truth and Logic‘ sounds a little bedridden. After covering so much ground and making so much progress in the middle portion of the album, Burning Borders seem to be daydreaming as ‘Truth and Logic‘ makes its stretch run; it kind of feels like the magician trying to melt Frosty, a poor and unjust way to cap off any album, let alone a promising debut.

Bottomline: Burning Borders should pat themselves on the back for their work on ‘Truth and Logic‘. If I were to tell you that a novice band out of Canada were sitting on a first album that fluently and astutely harnessed modern hard rock and American metalcore, would you believe me? Would you even want to believe me? Truth be told, Burning Borders do an enviable job of doing just that. Sure, the sound is raw and the double bass is sometimes used to overkill, but for every one fault, Burning Borders respond with two or three positive steps forward, putting them further atop rock music’s Everest than a wealth of others.

Rating: 8 out of 10