Astpai: Burden Calls

Artist: Astpai
Title: Burden Calls
Format Reviewed: MP3
Format Released: 22nd August 2014
Reviewed By: Dan Stoten

We all know that the very best times, the very best pieces of art, and the very best films, have that certain something, the undefinable quality, which puts them at the very top of their game. This is true, too, with music, with the best records having the necessary elements which just put them above their peers.

You always want new releases to have it, especially when recently impressed by the artists' other works. For me, this was the case with Burden Calls, the forthcoming fifth full-length from Austrian punks Astpai. They blew me away at Groezrock with their energy, passion and downright quality songs. As a live proposition, they truly are something else.

I really, really wanted to love this album. I really wanted to be sat here telling you about how this is up there with the best of 2014.

However, Burden Calls just leaves me a little flat. I've listened to it through a good few times now, as I figured that it may be a real grower of an album, but my opinion of it has barely changed since my first listen. To me, it's a very samey record, with the tracks sounding broadly similar across the length of the record. It's a slightly confused record, too, in that at times it's a straight-up punk album, at times a bit more poppy, while at others edging towards hardcore. This isn't necessarily a problem, but here, it just doesn't quite work. As opposed to Burden Calls having the certain something which makes it sublime, it's the reverse: there's a certain something here which just means the album doesn't work.

It's not a terrible record when taken in isolation, don't get me wrong. There are some elements of excellence here, the addictive chorus of Dead End Talking being a perfect case in point. There's equally no doubt of the musicianship the four-piece display, with the pace never letting up, frenetic drums, guitars and bass providing a breathless feel to the record.

Again, though, there's just nothing to make it stand out. Many tracks' intros begin promisingly but then tend to drift slightly into similar-sounding songs to much of the album. There are times, even, when it can be tricky to tell if one song has ended and the next begun...

For me, Ground Control is the best song on the album. It's got a bit more of a unique sound and it's edgy, choppy style is a welcome addition to the gritty lyrical style Zock displays. It's a disjointed song but one that works brilliantly for that.

What Astpai have delivered here, in my eyes, is a record you'd listen to all the way through once, then likely skip over when shuffling your songs. It's got none of the 'stand-up and take notice' the best records have, and doesn't really reward a listener for giving it time. It's not a terrible record, but it is a distinctly average one.