Year of the Cobra – “Burn Your Dead” [EP] [Album Review]

This Seattle duo’s latest EP opens with “Cold”, a song that showcases singer/bassist Amy Barrysmith’s vocals with a dynamic and application that have grown from previous releases – the band as a whole has continually been building and evolving since their debut back in 2015; showing more progression and confidence over time. Well, Burn Your Dead is short but very well-crafted and with many layers of depth. Truth be told, big things do come in small packages as this 5-tracker does, while still hefting enough variety to hold a full album’s worth of attention; not easy.

Like a lot of scaled-down outfits, Jon Barrysmith hefts both full-on driving force rhythms with flourishes and purpose within songs like “The Howl” and again “Cold”, while “The Descent” has dynamics that fill and pull back to allow Amy’s melodic swirls and harmonies to breathe unfettered.

Of course though, it wouldn’t be Year of the Cobra if they didn’t have just straight bangers like the title track and “And They Sang…” to burn through at all their gigs and stages across the US. All-in-all, another quality release from a hard-working, hard touring duo who keep continuing on that upward curve they mercilessly carve for themselves.

Burn Your Dead tracklist:

01. Cold
02. The Descent
03. Burn Your Dead
04. The Howl
05. And They Sang…

Run Time: 25:35
Release Date: October 27, 2017

Watch the band’s sweet video for then single “Burn Your Dead”.