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Understatement of the year coming up: the past few years have been trying times for Bury Your Dead. These Massachusetts purveyors of hardcore represent a revolving door of music talent, with members coming and going as they please. Not to mention struggling to stand out amongst a crowded hardcore/metalcore scene where breakdowns are indistinguishable and three word bands seemingly form out of thin air.

So what does a by-the-books hardcore act do when their sound grows tiresome? Inject a heaping dose of melody, of course.

Bury Your Dead’s 3rd full-length album Bury Your Dead deviates from one packed scene and falls into another resulting in various levels of success. Thanks to the addition of new vocalist Myke Terry, Bury Your Dead’s 11 brief tracks of punishment focus on the Beauty and the Beast mentality: clean melodic vocals over harsh riffs and triggered kick drums. For comparison’s sake, think Fear Factory’s Digimortal era - but not as painfully terrible.

At first, die-hard Bury Your Dead fans may be hesitant to embrace Terry. But soon after Bury Your Dead opener “Sympathy Orchestra” hits its final notes, Bury Your Dead’s new blood proves he’s more than a capable replacement for longtime frontman Mat Bruso. Terry’s not all about crystal-clean harmonies, though: “Hands to Hide the Shame” and “Womb Disease” pop with aggressive vocals that’ll undoubtedly move the pit during a live performance. However, Terry’s biggest knock is that while his vocals are passable, they’re anything but distinct. On “Fever Dream” I thought Fear Factory’s Burton C. Bell stormed in and took over the vocal tracks.

With Bury Your Dead’s fresh love for melody, it’s easy to wonder if their trademark breakdowns survived the change over. If you’re a breakdown enthusiast, don’t fret: Bury Your Dead pumps out a fair share of those patented hardcore arrangements, especially on “Womb Disease.” But the breakdowns feel more like an afterthought, putting Bury Your Dead’s new melodic song structure at the forefront. Guitarists Slim and Eric Ellis deliver a handful of punishing rhythmic riffs with nothing but bad intentions, peaking with the pummeling chords of “Year One.” However, despite the hardcore duos ability to open with a killer riff, they constantly lose steam as the songs progress. Eventually, tracks like “A Devil’s Ransom” and “Fools Gold” revert to slightly modified riffs that appeared earlier on the album.

Props to Bury Your Dead for surviving turmoil and putting out an album that’s slightly out of their comfort zone. But even though their new mature sound allows them to stick their heads above the hardcore waters, they now have to contend with the melodic metalcore Tsunami heading their way.