Band:	Act Of Defiance
Album:	Birth And The Burial
Style:	Heavy metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	August 21, 2015
Guest review by:	deadone

01. Throwback
02. Legion Of Lies
03. Thy Lord Belial
04. Refrain And Re-Fracture
05. Dead Stare
06. Disastrophe (A New Reality)
07. Poison Dream
08. Obey The Fallen
09. Crimson Psalm
10. Birth And The Burial

Having parted ways with Megadeth, guitarist Chris Roderick and drummer Shawn Drover have teamed up with Shadows Fall guitarist Matt Bachand (this time on bass) and ex-Scar The Martyr vocalist Henry Bonner to bring us Act Of Defiance and their debut album Birth And The Burial.

These guys mainly play modern thrash metal with a large slathering of melodic death metal and occasionally vibes of metalcore. There are shades of Testament and Slayer here, an occasional dalliance with Darkane's more conventional moments and unsurprisingly Megadeth. It's clear that a number of these songs a la "Refrain and Re-Fracture" were penned specifically for Megadeth before Misters Drover and Broderick left the fold.

As can be expected the performances are good, especially Broderick's signature guitar licks and solos. Bonner proves versatile a various vocal styles including clean singing, thrash barks, traditional metal and growls. But something is missing here and that is soul.

The whole thing just chugs along without any real inspiration or energy. It sounds forced and without passion. It's not bad but it doesn't really capture the listener's attention. In many ways it comes off as generic. The only songs that stand out are the obvious Megadeth ones like "Refrain And Re-Fracture" or "Poison Dream." And some of it's just downright dull such as the zippy opener "Throwback" which despite its speed initially just pummels along completely mindlessly. For once slowing down and getting more melodic actually improves things.

It's a shame that despite their musical pedigree, Act Of Defiance never get even close to achieving any level of passion or memorability or enjoyability that many of their peers do even in their lesser moments. In the end Birth And The Burial is the epitome of average metal, being neither bad enough to offend or good enough to stand out.