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Project 86

Songs To Burn Your Bridges By (2004)
Tooth & Nail Records

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Contributed by: Scott
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on June 18th 2004

This record was definitely an unexpected surprise of the heavy variety. Generally, most of what Tooth & Nail releases slides by my radar without so much as a blip of recognition. Many of their bands seem like carbon copies of other, more successful bands [or even each other], and rarely do any of them put out an album that's really worth listening to more than once. Major label refugees Project 86, however, have beat those odds and put out Songs To Burn Your Bridges By, a hard-hitting 14-track affair that I'm having trouble removing from my stereo.

Project 86's sound staddles a number of lines. They have the intensity of Sick Of It All or Snapcase [who they also share a number of vocal attributes with]. The music behind those fiercely barked vocals though follows the path of Quicksand, and even venturing into Deftones territory at times. This puts the band into an interesting musical spot - they can either write hardcore songs or radio-geared songs and have either type come out rather well. Over the course of this album, they do both, and succeed in each instance.

The album's opening barrage of "The Spy Hunter" and "Oblivion" pound the listener into submission, with aggressive guitar lines and yelled choruses that are so abrasive they're catchy. The album then shifts gears with "A Shadow On Me," a song that could very easily end up on some "Extreme Rock" show on M2 or FUSE, with the main vocalist's barks shifted to the background, allowing the guitarist [who has a rather strong singing voice] take over. A comparison could be made to a band like Trust Company, although this is much better.

This is how the majority of the album plays out. There will be a few really intense, riff-driven songs, and then a more melodic, hook-driven song. The best part is, none of them are that bad. The only real fault to this album is that at 14 tracks and 50 minutes, the disc tends to run a little long. Cutting even one song would have helped the album's energy be more consistent throughout.

All in all, this is a pleasant surprise and a definite winner from the Tooth & Nail camp, and worth your attention.

MP3s
The Spy Hunter
A Shadow On Me
Oblivion [clip]

Stream six songs here

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Djessluvspunk (December 6, 2006)

its not the best band but ... they got a hiden talent but hell they dont show it !

suspendedintime (December 4, 2006)

i think this band is amazing, and for those that don't, well i'm not sure. you may think their lyrics suck. obviously you don't know why people write lyrics.
its not a conversation, it's usually a battle within yourself. and its not supposed to be easy to understand what the lyricist is trying to say.

Anonymous (March 27, 2006)

i love your guys music. Spy Hunter is my favorite song. keep rockin on and follow God and your dreams

Anonymous (March 26, 2006)

Scott, Scott, Scott, this is the first review I agree with you. Although most at the time you suck at reviews. Where did they find you. Obviously these kids have been listening to this music longer than you. Why don't they review the band instead of you. Hey something to the punknews head huncho. Love this album, and all project had been doing since there first album. By the way why is this getting reviewed on punknews. Punk is dead.

Anonymous (January 28, 2006)

this band rock's !!!
greets from dutch boy

m/

Inspection12e (July 23, 2005)

I have to agree with Jesse on this. Fuck this band!

Anonymous (November 24, 2004)

this cd is awesome to bad most of you don't have good taste in hardcore metal. Rock 4 life.

Anonymous (June 21, 2004)

T&N pretty much sucks. Project 86 is th only decent arist I have heard from them. They put on very good live shows, and have written good songs and albums.

And someone said something about sounding like P.O.D.
Yeah guy, you don't really know how to define music too well if you relate two bands that dont' sound similar.

Anonymous (June 21, 2004)

Does anybody want me to Project 86 their mama in the ass?

Anonymous (June 19, 2004)

go god, d00ds!

Jesse (June 19, 2004)

Fuck, this shit sounds like POD trying to go indie-hardcore.

slippy (June 19, 2004)

The score is for the song "spy hunter" that I downloaded. Shit that sucked.

TheBouncingSoul (June 19, 2004)

drawing black lines really is quality

this is only ok

i saw them play at waterfront a couple years back, scott...they tore it up for the couple hundred hilbillies in attendance

Anonymous (June 18, 2004)

Based on everyone's comments, I wanna go back and listen to their old stuff....I stopped after someone called it "rap metal", and I wanted to stray away from that.

Anonymous (June 18, 2004)

Yeah, Drawing Black Lines was really really good. They had a much more hardcore feel back then. The last album was good, but more metal. I like the hardcore stuff, like "One Armed Man" and "Set Me Up" style more. Score's for Drawing Black Lines, haven't listened to this one yet.

Anonymous (June 18, 2004)

thier old T N album Drawing Black Lines is very good.

Anonymous (June 18, 2004)

You should have listened to the independently released version before they resigned with Tooth n' Nail. It only had 11 songs and was about 8-10 minutes shorter. You probably would have liked it better. They left off 'A Shadow on Me", "Breakdown in 3/4" and "3 Card". The album also had a more crunchy, independent sound to it. Not nearly as polished as the re-release

gladimnotemo (June 18, 2004)

I used to really like this band, back in the day. After they jumped to a major label, but then re-released the album on T&N, it got confusing to follow, and I gave up. I might give this a listen though.

TahoeJeff (June 18, 2004)

These guys are really good. I'm glad they got a fair review. Drawing Black Lines is a good album too. I dont think the major label promoted them enough. It seemed like P.O.D. got all the attention while these guys got stuck opening for Queensryche. I remember going to that show and I was up in the front, I looked back and nobody was even standing. Someone even had the balls to ask if I could sit down. I told them no, I came to see this band.