Album Review: Buried In Verona - 'Notorious'

Buried In Verona are a band who have worked hard to do things the "right way." Countless tours around the country securing an underground fan base, a stint overseas to find maturity through experience and record 'Notorious,' their third release, and the shuffling of members to find the perfect line-up. That all being said, it would seem like the new album is do or die, the make or break moment for the band in which they lay it all on the line. Releasing through UNFD after a shows with The Amity Affliction isn't a bad way to start, and if the opening two tracks of the record are anything to go by, it's game on.

Maybe Next Time is a hateful opener, flicking spite at someone who has clearly pissed the band off severely as the screams, “If I found you burning I wouldn't stop to piss on you," tear through pile-driving guitars and pounding drums. Four Years brings forth a bit more of the melody and clean singing which rears its head every now and then throughout the record whilst also incorporating touches of electronica which these days is a little too expected in music of this style.

Tracks like the quieter verse/catchy chorus lined Can't Let It Go, which features guest vocals from Amity Affliction's Ahren Stringer, show that the band are changing things up whilst still incorporating the sounds reminiscent of their earlier releases/incarnations. The maturity that the band searched for mentioned earlier is best represented in Lion Heart, a soft number which is unlike anything else on the record, showing impressive clean vocals and structuring, this track alone hints that Buried In Verona may have plans to seriously push the boundaries of the Australian hardcore/punk scene.

The aggression picks up again with songs like The Decent that sticks to the usual aggressive verse/clean chorus formula which the band comes a little close to over-using. The string laden introduction of Forget What You Know is extremely confusingly tacked on to a fairly standard track, disappointing as it feels like more could have been done there. The record closes with some power house tracks like the blistering Finders Keepers and Ivory, which uses soaring guitars lines and a wall-of-sound chorus to end the record in an epic fashion.

Buried In Verona have taken a pretty decent stab at becoming the next best thing in the Australian hardcore/punk scene. Granted they are sticking fairly close to the formulas of the successful bands before them, but it's the moments where they deviate from those formulas which are the most exciting, meaning there is some serious potential in this group.

1. Maybe Next Time
2. Four Years
3. Miles Away
4. Can't Let It Go
5. Lion Heart
6. Couldn't Give 34 Fucks
7. Perceptions
8. The Decent
9. Forget What You KNow
10. Finders Keepers
11. Last Words
12. Ivory