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REVIEW – Burton C. Bell could not have timed the release of this album any more odd. This is the week that all the news is either reporting he is in Fear Factory or that he has left. The release of the new Ascension of the Watchers record makes me think that Burton seems to have a plan in his mind. The thing with Burton is that he is the visionary who knew that music was changing when Fear Factory hit the scene, so the band braced and adapted for it. Some can say for the computer age and digital stage, Fear Factory opened that floodgate. I feel with the second release by Ascension, Burton sees this as him having the freedom to venture out in these waters that Fear Factory could not. Let us not forget, Fear Factory has covered U2 and he did melodic for Delain in the past and also Burton has thrown in his thrash roots for Kilgore and Geezer Butler. So, we know how versatile of a vocalist he is. That was me laying down the base of where this review is heading. This new cd by Ascension is a hard one to really digest. I will go on record and say it is better than their debut. There is an old saying, “ Don’t be something you are not, because the universe can see thru you”. I feel that Burton at this point is just trying to strike a winning formula. We clearly can sense that as we listen to this album that comes across as a softer Ministry with some mellow Deftones added. To deal with the hands of cards he has had is hard for him as a man and also as an artist.
This album at times you can feel his stress. This band is clearly going against the grain and trying for mainstream as some of the songs on here feel way too commercial. This album showcases a more sedated Burton in his safe place of throwback goth. He uses melodic as his approach and tries to distance himself from his past. I am more apt to call this band Letters to Bauhaus. Here is how you can see this album. It has the rocking feel of Letters to Cleo with Bauhaus inspired tones. This album needed something heavy to just showcase the chops of this band. You have fucking John Bechdel as your keyboardist and this is his vision as well? I find that hard to believe. I am a fan of rock singers going in deep water with wanting to do the throwback goth deal. Taimie Downe did a great job on the first Newlydeads cd. (Note that I only mentioned the first record.)
The members of XYZ and Baton Rouge did a great job in their throwback punk band Puzzle Gut. So, it can be done. This album can be seen as the later though, like Joey Belladonna doing his Journey album. This album is not Burton C Bell. He knows it. He can tell people all he wants how he hates doing metal all the time, but that is what he wanted to establish himself as early in his career. If he would have come out of nowhere in 1988 when Fish left and became the lead singer of Marillion then a move like this later in the career it could be better accepted. I feel artists like Devin Townsend can pull this off.
Fuck this review, Burton C. Bell I am James DePaolo. I met you in 1999 at a show and we talked for a little while about things. You are one of the coolest and down to earth rock stars out there. I get it you are fucked on the FF deal, but this is not you. If you are not going to listen to your heart, listen to your mother fucking fans. Fans like me are the ones who write reviews from our hearts and when albums suck, it hurts us because we want to paint pretty pictures to help you sell units, but we are not the majors who lie to get ad revenue and do not care about their readers and write fake things to get you to brag about them. Bands like Conflict, Epica, Mechanical God Creation and many more cite you as an inspiration and your work in FF as their reason to be musicians. If this is what they would have heard in the start, you would have been forgotten about. You are not a second rate Tool or Chino. You are a fucking first rate Burton.
If this is what we are getting from you instead of metal, I will pass and thank you for all you did for my fandom back in the day. I will play my Fear Factory and Geezer cds and remember what once was. I will not rate this album unfairly because I feel yet again it is fake and not you. This is you trying to score some money to get yourself back up. You are swallowing your ego and selling your soul to a monster that is so unforgiving. This cd shows me that no one is above selling out. I thought after the first cd, you got this out of your system. I typed enough, we get the point. You are not the Edgecrusher anymore, you are the musician. The faceless, nameless, directionless musician who is just doing shit for cash. Go play your song singer and get those strings pulled.
