Review by Rachel Jablonski
"Our relationships with others are like bridges that take us from one place to another,” reads the GoEnglish.com Pocket English Idiom for “Don’t Burn Your Bridges.” It continues, “When we ‘burn our bridges’ we destroy our relationships and it is difficult to go back.”
Relationships are the essence of life, but we all know that they are not always easy to maintain. Whether it is with a significant other, a family member, a friend, or a coworker, without an honest effort from each party the connection is likely to fade or fail and bridges are likely to burn. This concept could not be more real or more important to me than it is right now. A lit match seems to be hovering over the bridge between myself and someone close to me who continues to make mistake after mistake with little regard for anyone else. She has burned many other bridges in the past and I have stood by and supported her. But at what point does support turn into enabling? Can it be healthy to burn bridges at times? Why does it sometimes seem so hard to get through to the people we are connected with or care about?
Songs to Burn Your Bridges By, the latest release from the under recognized band Project 86, is an amazing album, passionate in presentation, with realistic and common real life concepts such as these. With song titles like “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guy…,” “A Shadow on Me,” “A Text Message to the So Called Emperor” and a picture on the album cover of a person with a knife behind his back, a hole cut out of his chest revealing an empty space where his heart should be, I cannot think of better metaphors for how I feel in my present situation. Though these images and metaphors seem violent and deceiving at first glance, the album is a beautiful and honest effort making up one of the best albums I have heard in awhile.
Surpassing the flatness of their 2002 effort Truthless Heroes, Project 86 has upped their strengths picking up where their terrific 2000 release, Drawing Black Lines, left off. With comparable high energy, intense rough and melodic vocals, first-rate riffs and heaps of distortion, the core of Project 86 has been recaptured while the band seems to have gone to the next level in song composition. A great variety in guitar arrangements with rich tones, an unquestionable hard edge, and great vocal combinations grasp the listener until the album’s ending note.
The album starts off with a bang, a short guitar intro and then a sudden break in music as vocalist Andrew Schwab fills the void swiftly with the zealous line one last disguise. An intrepid guitar riff follows. The track reveals the distinct and distinguished voice of Schwab with solid volume and drive, rough spoken-like vocal rhythms, and a sincerity that carries. In addition to Schwab’s rhythmic tone of voice are poetic lyrics that flow throughout the album.
These petals this blackened rose in a soil all my own shrouding your hallowed ground like seeds who’ll never sow like forgery and larceny and my ill-gained revelry I recite these scripted lines while embers of a different time… divulges the song “A Shadow on Me.” Prior to these words is a sound like a match being struck. The music that follows is sluggish with a soft, echoing guitar effect along with slightly more prominent drums. The track picks up right before the chorus, however, revealing a healthy and full rock sound. The highlight is the chorus which is highly addictive with wonderful and quite catchy melody.
“Say Goodnight to the Bad Guy…” also contains a memorable chorus with the words come one, come all followed by a resounding hey hey hey and a continuation of whoever wants a taste of me take it for free. The song is good musically, but the chant of hey hey hey is a bit of a distraction from the central song elements. The benefit to adding this part seems to be an effective way to get a live crowd involved in the band's set, allowing them to chant along with the song. This is just one example of the unifying effect the album has on the listener.
Songs to Burn Your Bridges By may not be able to prevent bridges from burning or help rekindle a connection, but it is an album fueled by motivation, passion, and creative musicianship. Questions of how to get through to someone, if it is sometimes healthy to burn bridges and the consequences of doing so may remain unanswered as they depend on the situation at hand, feelings symbolized by the literally heartless man on the Project 86 album cover may remain complicated, but the honest and heartfelt display of Songs to Burn Your Bridges By is unquestionable and sure to get through to anyone. In other words, a connection with the Project 86 sounds is very likely and will be one bridge you won’t want to burn.