Project 86 – Songs to Burn Your Bridges By review
Posted by RNS Robot on January 3rd, 2010
Project 86
Songs To Burn Your Bridges By
Released 2004
Tooth & Nail Records
www.project86.com
Difficult.
Trying to convey how every urgent phrase Andrew “Macabre” Schwab spits out sounds like it has been wrenched forcefully from his entrails? Writing a review that gets across how Project 86 is hard rock with definite punk and metal elements yet is so much more than the sum of its parts? Attempting with words to convey how Project 86′s fourth release is nothing short of a battered, bloody beaten hero that prompts the antagonist to exclaim in utter exasperation “Why won’t you DIE?”
Difficult.
Get up. Take your feet. They can’t keep you down. They can’t take away the hope that exists in Truth. On their record “Drawing Black Lines,” Project 86 stated boldly “No, you can not take what’s inside of me.” Project reaffirms that creed throughout a record of driving anthems and racing, desperate hard rock epics. Andrew Schwab seems to have finally found the balance between the outright shout/screaming of earlier P86 and the more melodic “Truthless Heros” album, complemented excellently by the backing vocals of the rest of the band. Musically and lyrically, the new record is the culmination of their career thus far — merging together the best elements of all three previous records while creating a beast of entirely new color.
Lyrics are inspiring, thought-provoking and incredibly, genuinely honest. “I am a Christian. I am also a critic of christian culture,” Mr. Schwab has stated recently. In the chorus of the mystique-laden and blistering “The Spy Hunter,” Schwab rages “We caught you plotting murder! And now the tide is turning! We’ll light our bones, heat our souls upon your empire burning!” The songs are, individually, like small dramas, epic and grandiose but with a human quality that keeps them from becoming impossible to relate to. Schwab alternately offers satirical, pointed remarks on North American society’s failings while clinging to the hope he has in Christ. Even if he thinks the Christian culture is completely screwed up. It is an important separation that prevents “Bridges” from becoming disgustingly negative. “Songs To Burn Your Bridges By” is the best punch in the teeth you’ll have all year.
