Four albums into their career and England's BURY TOMORROW are still clinging stubbornly to the Metalcore rulebook. They're a polished, shiny and mainstream friendly act, with songs that all follow the same template; they mix Michael Bay verses with Richard Curtis choruses, have frantic mosh-parts and melodic bits for taking a breath. It's contrived, predictable and if you've heard any of their previous records you'll find no surprises here. Hell, even if you were just hovering around the fringes of the Metal community in the years after Nu-Metal died you'll have a first-hand experience of something like this.

That being said, "Earthbound" is still a very enjoyable album and while BURY TOMORROW are dangerously unoriginal, they are very good at what they do. There are some huge anthems to be found here and if you've enjoyed the previous three records, chances are you'll dig this one too.

Part of the reason for their success is the dual vocals of Daniel Winter-Bates (bad cop) and Jason Cameron (good cop). The former has a satisfyingly red-blooded roar and could inspire a dead man to start a bench press plan, while the latter can both sing and not sound like a whiney Californian teenager at the same time. He comes across like an adult with a good voice rather than some preening little bitch with an auto-tune who doodles hearts on his lyrics pad and pines after a girl who made the mistake of kissing him once. The two singers work perfectly together and both styles complement each other, while the rest of the band spin a wealth of big riffs and swirling melodies behind them.

As a result, the songs have some serious chops and it's very easy to listen to the whole thing without pressing the skip button once. "Memories" is the strongest effort, combining a booming sing-a-long with mosh-tastic aggression, but there are some other great efforts alongside it. "The Eternal" is a furious opener, the title track is going to inspire mass pogoing in fields this summer and "301" sees Jamey Jasta turn up for some good old-fashioned shouting. The closing duo of "For Us" and "Bloodline" meanwhile are very impressive indeed, both being fit for heavy rotation on whatever music channels the kids watch nowadays and ending the album on a high.

In fact, the rigid adherence to Metalcore's guidelines is the only problem BURY TOMORROW have. They write great songs but it's also very easy to anticipate where they're going with each one. That's only a minor complaint though because "Earthbound" slays and if your world has already been rocked by KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, SOILWORK and HATEBREED, there's no reason not to embrace these lads. The Brits can do Metalcore just as well as the Americans and Germans and BURY TOMORROW are the proof.  <