When listening to this album, I found it difficult to do so with a strict, examining state of mind. I wanted to capture all of the technicalities and mechanical bits within each song, so that I could later articulate what those ingredients did to either help or hurt the album. I wanted to listen to the music in this state of mind for the sole purpose that I wouldn't miss anything. My mind is a glass and the album is a pitcher of precious liquid; I want it poured carefully so that none of it splatters outside of the glass. But in doing this, a lot can be lost. In fact, I found that listening to this particular album in this manner would most certainly knock the whole glass over, making it impossible to drink and enjoy. Fortunately, I didn't stop the album midway through and realize my mistake and start it over. I simply knew how my head should be from the very first song. I dropped everything and focused solely on the sound. And in doing so, I was whipped in and out of the dark and mesmerizing trances found in Foundations of Burden.
It is always a great pleasure to come across an album that tells you exactly what it is. It shakes and rocks the listener, exclaiming its dominance; it demands your attention. The multitude of moods and sounds will fling you into the high heavens and then unapologetically drag you down into great abysses. And even with the change in scenery, you will realize that you have been in the same place all along. The album, all in all, stays itself. Even while it is constantly moving in and out of its many forms, it is recognizable.
Foundations of Burden offers great power with its combinations of sounds. The drawn out instrumental journeys and the ancient-chant-like vocals are perfect masters for keeping the listener in the album's grasp. The transitions from heavily distorted rhythms to the sound of a lone, clean, and calm guitar is time-slowing. The album is patient and cunning. It wants to take you in and keep you there, and it does. The album is fifty-five minutes long, but certain parts will make the listener feel like they have been there for hours.
The music offered in Foundations of Burden is truly special. Pallbearer resides in a genre that is not in any way in the initial viewing line of the masses. This type of music doesn't scream for attention from atop a Times Square billboard or a famously published top one hundred music chart. Music can be exposed through so many different mediums in this day and age that it makes me truly grateful to have somehow been able to stumble across this album amongst all of the other possible candidates. Listening to this album and absorbing its value was an absolutely delightful experience unlike any other. Pallbearer honorably performs their sacred duty as musicians by composing such a bewitching world of original sounds. Foundations of Burden is a truly memorable voyage.
