Somewhere I had a notion that German Van label is strictly some underground black metal. Turns out if these Aachen based self-labeled lunatics spot an authentic musical strain, they go for it, regardless of the genre.

Case on display, Burden is as far from black metal as you can imagine (and so are some other recent Van releases to be honest). What Burden, with its seemingly international roster, plays is riff based rock’n’roll oriented metal, with equal portion of doom, stoner and fried Southern rock mixed into it. Don’t know if many remember when Taneli Jarva split away from Sentenced, but that was the day when Finnish bluesy tinged rocking outfit The Black League was founded. Not as varied in influence as The Black League debut Ichor, not as monumentally smoking as Utopia AD and not as simplistically groovy as Man’s Ruin Revisited, but Man of No Account invoked in me some strong associations with the Finns.

Van must be excited enough about these newcomers to rush out with a 7”EP containing only two tracks to lay the marker down for the upcoming full-length release. Both tracks, proceeding very much in the same vein, stab you in the gut, twist out the intestines and roll in some hot boulders instead. Burden is genuine, unadulterated and rather basic in their approach. In a twist of tour booking genius they are going to be supporting Grand Magus on the upcoming US tour and the fans of the Swedes early material should lap Burden up. Vocalist Thorsten, gurgling out those demented, substance influenced shouts should have the audience eating from his hands.

The full-length here promises to be a smasher, and if epic progressive leanings of the early The Black League are something you could do without, straighter-edge doom-stoner rock of Burden will hit the spot.