Sometimes you just don’t know anything to say about a specific release. When trying to review Burn Down Rome’s debut album Devotion I had such a writer’s block. With Devotion, these young Brits from London made a very challenging record for both the reviewer as the ‘normal’ listener. With the right tools, open-mindedness and a laptop, I’ll try to give you some insight in BDR’s debut anyway.

With ‘Michael’ as opening track, you might get the thoughts you’re dealing with some kind of Down-clone here. But when ‘Debauchery’ kicks in, that illusion will diminish right away. BDR presents some mighty post-rock influenced hardcore on this disc. Despite that they’re still teenagers, many bands could learn something from BDR’s music though. This is not your average post-hardcore, they definitely offer more than many others. It may sound cliché, but with the use of spoken lyrics, the intense instrumental title track and the variation between the songs, they definitely realized a fine debut.

With Devotion these four guys explored their capabilities and that resulted into an almost unique sound. If they’re able to personalize the sound they’ve created even more, we’ll probably be hearing much more from them in the upcoming years.