Broken Rail: Beautiful Chaos

Three albums into their time together and Broken Rail continue the steady rise they’ve managed to benefit from as they’ve journeyed from their 2011 self released debut album Never The Same to the follow up, Til’ Death Do Us Part some seven years later. Released in 2020 through Cleopatra, Beautiful Chaos finds a mature band, secure in their sound and able to flex their muscles as a modern metal act without losing sight of where the music they specialise in came from. Modern touching points come in the shape, when Broken Rail are at their more melodic, of Alter Bridge, but in a way that still feels connected to an era when metal and hard rock were still being formed in the streets of the UK.

However, when the growls come out so we head in a much more contemporary direction, where riffs are touted mercilessly and singer Blake Clawson leaves little doubt as to his class. Admittedly on some of the truly melodic moments, such as “Patterns�, his layered voice does take us into a more Nu-Metal situation and it has to be said that the guitars from Dave Delacruz and Aaron Jackson don’t exactly put up a fight. However, with “California�, which just about blends the two approaches, gaining a band who already have numerous awards and accolades on their mantle-piece, ever more notice, then maybe this lot are onto something? Personally I find Broken Rail to be most effective when the distortion pedal is much more firmly stamped upon and the vocals are spat and snarled, such as they are on the opening title track, but there’s little doubt that having the ability to confidently sit with their feet in more than one musical camp could prove to be a very smart move indeed.

Beautiful Chaos is mighty, meaty and not for those of a fragile disposition and yet, it also contains huge choruses, big melodies and hooks aplenty. That’s a clever mix and one Broken Rail really do use to their full advantage. With a fair wind superstardom may just be around the corner.

Track Listing
1. Beautiful Chaos
2. Nightmare
3. California
4. Demon in Disguise
5. Creatures
6. On My Own
7. Patterns
8. Never Be the Same
9. The Haunted
10. Reignite

Added: September 11th 2021
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Broken Rail @ bandcamp
Hits: 459
Language: english

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