From the Ashes

In my opinion, 2020 has been a fantastic year for music thus far. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of the new music produced by Breaking Benjamin, Five Finger Death Punch, In This Moment, Breathing Theory, Trivium (I cannot wait for their upcoming album), Avenged Sevenfold, The Birthday Massacre, Red, and even more. I’ve wanted to review a lot of these new albums, but haven’t found the time. However, I firmly intend to review most of them, starting this week.

Of all the bands I mentioned, the band and EP I want to discuss today is not among them. Today, I would like to talk about Memory of a Melody and their new EP Burn Alive. About two years ago I discovered MOAM and thoroughly enjoyed the music that they had produced. Unfortunately, that was in 2018, and their most recent releases at the time were two singles from 2013. It may have been seven years since their last release, but I am ecstatic that MOAM has released more music because I really enjoyed their stuff. MOAM’s stuff can be really heavy and unique, and I really appreciate it.

And MOAM’s heaviness is ever-present in “Mary Go Round.” In my opinion, “Mary Go Round” is the most lyrically interesting of the three songs on the EP. I think that a lot of the song’s appeal, at least for me, comes from the rapid fire verses and their interesting play on the name “Mary” as it appears in different nursery rhymes, sayings, and whatnot. The instrumentals are also fantastic with some great guitar solos. Another aspect of “Mary Go Round” that I appreciate is its sheer anger and edginess. Edginess is a tricky thing to do well in music (this is part of the reason I DO NOT like death metal; I see it as being TOO edgy for edginess’ sake), but I firmly believe that MOAM is one of the few bands who can do edge truly well. “Mary Go Round” is a perfect example of this.

The next song is “Burn Alive,” and while it’s a good song, I don’t like it as much as “Mary Go Round.” “Burn Alive” is much softer and simpler than the other songs on the EP, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. While I do really enjoy MOAM’s heaviness and edginess, “Burn Alive” isn’t either of those things. Still, there’s a lot of beauty in the relative simplicity and more melodic nature of “Burn Alive.” And like “Mary God Round,” “Burn Alive” features some killer instrumentals with incredible guitar solos. Finally, “Burn Alive” seems to convey a more of a melancholic tune than the other songs, and I kind of like it honestly.

The final song on the EP is “Rise Up.” “Rise Up” is probably my second favorite song on the EP. “Rise Up” is a nice mix between the heaviness of “Mary Go Round” and the softness of “Burn Alive” (soft being a relative term here). “Rise Up” is quite similar in composition to “Burn Alive” in the sense that both songs are simpler lyrically than “Mary Go Round.” And like its preceding songs, “Rise Up” features some more incredible instrumentals and guitar solos. The song as a whole is also pretty upbeat and uplifting.

Overall, Memory of a Melody’s new EP is great. I could not be happier to know that they’re back and producing new music. The EP also does a great job of showing off the different emotional ranges that the band is capable of, from extremely angry songs to more melodic and melancholic songs to even inspirational songs. Finally, I appreciate how the EP still sounds like the Memory of a Melody that I discovered a few years ago. In the end, if you’re a fan of rock or metal music, I would highly recommend checking out Burn Alive.