Red. White. Green.

This, is what I call good deathcore; it's the cream of the crop as far as i'm concerned. Memorable riffs, catchy gang shouts and lyrics, precise drumming, good bass work to lay the sound down, and on top of it all, great vocal work. This is Upon A Burning Body, who's signed to Sumerian Records (and rightfully so), with their sophomore album "Red. White. Green." The main reason why I consider it the cream of the crop is, it has such a unique sound and influence to it, that sets it apart from many of the other acts out there.

The guitars in here are tuned to drop A from the most part, using drop B a couple of times, and even using nylon string guitars (yes, you read that right) for the instrumental track on the album. The tone used here fits the style they play very well, and just sounds great all together. The same can be said for the bass as well, giving the sounds a great foundation, and a whole, full sound. The riffs you'll hear aren't just standard deathcore riffs, they have special influence from their home state, Texas, and some influence from south of the border as well, which you can hear in the songs. The players themselves are very versatile as well, which is showcased by the track "El Mariachi" which is based on the Mexican mariachi style of music, and it fits in well with the rest of the album.

The drumming on this album is death metal drumming with hardcore influences, and extreme precision. He never sticks to one patterns for an extremely long time, without switching things up from time to time. The drumming never gets really monotonous, and is pretty interesting to listen to. As I said, this is death metal drumming, so there is alot of double bass usage (although it normally doesn't get very fast), and blast beats to boot as well, but never overused like in some albums. There's not much else I can thing to say here.

Now for the vocals. The vocalist isn't the best deathcore vocalist I've heard (that award going to Phil Bozeman or Aegaeon's former vocalist Jim), but he does have a good style. He sounds fairly standard when it comes to tone and style, having a pretty good range to boot as well, but not as large as some. What he does have that vocalists don't have, is good annunciation, being able to decipher exactly what he's saying for the most part, while still being able to have a hate filled tone. His style of vocals really matches the rest of the music well, while reflecting the hate filled lyrics that you'll find on the album.

As far a production and sound goes, the production and mixing sounds great, with a good overall tone to the album. The sound of this album is one of the most unique sounds I've heard from any album, being heavily influenced by southern Texas, and Mexico, as you can tell by the guitar riffs, and even the lyrics for at least one song. That is what separates it from many of the albums that have been released this year, and it's easily one of my favorite albums of the year.