The Burning of Rome has released their latest album Year of the Ox. The band has a unique sound that combines a variety of rock 'n' roll influences including, punk, gothic and traditional. The group is comprised of Aimee Jacobs, Keveen Baudouin, Adam Traub, Danny King and Joe Aguilar.
At times this album feels confused about what direction the group wanted to go in with the instruments. Even within the first track on the album, "Year of the Ox," it goes back and forth between being heavily punk influenced to a emo-rock infused.
The highlight of the record is what Aimee Jacobs adds in her voles to complement the males vocals on the record. This harmonizing and collaboration makes the songs feel modern and adds an new interesting element to the album throughout.
The album does feel like a jam session that was broken up into different singles but a strong thread isn't found that holds all of the tracks together and really makes this feel like one fluid record.
The album does feature many guitar solos and an interesting mix of influences but Year of the Ox would have benefited from sticking with one style and sticking to it. Every member of the band has talent and shows that off on this record, if they had a clear direction, each talent could have shined even more.
What should be noted though is that as a band, the group was willing to take musical risks and experiment with what their sound could be, that type of passion and creativity will lead to some bigger and better things down the road. It will only be a matter of fine tuning that experimentation and really expressing their musical point of view.
Stand out tracks on the album include, "Echo Park," "Better Than He" and "God of Small Things."