Comprised of incredible talent and unique sound, VersaEmerge has captured my interest since I first heard one of their most popular songs “Past Praying For” 3 years ago. Since “Past Praying For”, which appeared on the band’s second EP, VersaEmerge has released many more fantastic albums, EPs, and singles. One of the most recent of these new singles, “Burn”, was released on August 1stof 2012 and displayed a new and incredible sound for the band.
VersaEmerge’s sound has always been to me a hauntingly grungy rock that is fantastic mood music. “Burn” however is a clear step away from their previous music, but it is a step in a great direction. At its heart, “Burn” still possesses the weird self-analysis and brooding nature of a great Versa song but the chorus brings an element of slamming bass with muted musical additions from other instruments that, when paired with vocalist Sierra Kusterbeck’s incredible voice, creates a pounding chorus that almost just makes your vision shake. The song is, as mentioned earlier, lyrically similar to VersaEmerge’s previous songs but I really like the incorporation of the song’s title into the song. In the chorus, Sierra sings “And I’m just so stubborn-burn-burn-burn, and I’ll never le-le-le-learn”and as I listen to it, I can feel the distorted guitar and raging bass as a roaring fire and I’ll be damned if I haven’t heard better song by them.
In the summer of 2010 I had the great fortune to see VersaEmerge at the Van’s Warped Tour show in Hartford, CT and even though they were only playing half of the Comcast Theater’s main stage, they completely killed the performance and I left feeling like it’d be hard to ever just listen to their music from an iPod again. Because the stars have aligned and the gods are at peace, VersaEmerge will be at Warped Tour once again this year and, even if you aren’t particularly taken by their music right now, it would be a mi