Get Face To Face With Aburden And Their New Single

Come introduce yourself to Melbourne's Aburden, an up and coming spoken word/melodic hardcore outfit who have a brand new single out.

Aburden's 'Face To Face' premiered on Triple J's Short.Fast.Loud earlier this week and was produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Belle Haven's Christopher Vernon at Perception studios. Also, the song's artwork was painted by one Bonnie Smith (which is found below). 

Now, when the quintet released their new single, 'Face To Face', they stated on their social medias to "Rate & review" it, referencing to the rating and review system employed on Triple J Unearthed, where the song is currently exclusively streaming. Man, I don't know about you, but I keep on forgetting that Triple J Unearthed is still a goddamned thing (Bandcamp for life, yo).

But instead of rating or reviewing it over there, I'm just gonna do that here, right now, because a) it's late and my PS4 is taking forever to update and, b) because fuck it, why not? So here we go!

Aburden, in a nutshell, are a mixture of the emotional, open-diary lyrics and slam poetry vocal delivery of Hotel Books, with the darkened melodic hardcore sound & instrumentation of groups like Casey and our very own Stepson. On top of that, the band, or rather their vocalist, doesn't hide the quintessentially Australian tone/accent of the vocals. Of course, to some, that's a big deal breaker and provides an excuse to cringe, but I think that it gives Aburden an added characteristic or flavour from other bands in the local scene. Plus, with the very personal lyrical content, I would rather hear the singer's actual voice and accent, instead of a forced one that's put on to simply appease the genre.

That's also the same thing that I adore about Eat Your Heart Out's singer Caitlin Henry; her sweet, Aussie-but-not-Aussie accent and her dulcet vocal tone.

But I digress! As far as the song's instrumentals go, it's nothing new for melodic hardcore but the performances work very well for the band's sound & style. They are also just dynamic and melodic enough to contrast the dryer spoken word parts and soaring backing vocal. The lead guitar work at the end was also a really nice touch and was a highpoint of the song for yours truly.

Thus, all up, 'Face To Face' is solid stuff, but I'd argue that it's perhaps not as unique or as different as some others may lead you to believe. But as far as this style goes, I would much prefer to listen to these five dudes then some of their current peers (not to name names, of course). So in conclusion, I'm giving to give this track 7.5 emotional hardcore kids out of 10.

Well, that was fun, wasn't it?

In any case, Aburden will be heading out on tour in late October alongside fellow locals Spectral Fires, who also just released a single and whose tour will celebrate their new EP, 'Wayfarer'. Dates and tickets here.

You can check out 'Face To Face' exclusively through the dying medium that is the Triple J Unearthed player. (Which is rivalled only by the now dead JB HI-FI music player as one of worst music streamers on the Internet. #neverforget.) Hopefully, we can expect a YouTube and/or Bandcamp release in the near future and balance can be restored to the universe.