After I quite harshly criticized the last COMMON ENEMY album "Living the Dream?" in the last issue of Verbotene Früchte (No. 19), I am now surprised by the positive change the hardcore band from Pennsylvania has achieved in the last 2 years. The 16 songs from the new album "As the world burns" simply sound more vibrant and structured, not just played loudly and thoughtlessly forward, like the 2010 album "Living the Dream?".
Musically, COMMON ENEMY has definitely taken a big step forward. Even the 24-minute hardcore shouting vocals by Gary Critical, with an average song length of 1½ minutes, have improved quite a bit. Gary must have worked on this, and it has paid off!
Unfortunately, the booklet is quite weak. While there was a bonus point for it 2 years ago, I have to deduct one for the booklet this time. It is really too trivial.
