Burnt By The Sun
Heart Of Darkness

There are bands that escape standardized categorizations.

Burnt by the Sun (from now on BbtS) are part of this (non)category, offering for 10 years very personal music that fits neither grindcore nor metal, nor anything else, but proposes a different path to that uncertain genre that is defined as math-core (whatever that means). Alongside more renowned and famous bands like Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan (beware, the new work is coming out in a few days), the BbtS with the previous "The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good" (here you will find the magnificent "Forlani") have forged a "mathematical" grindcore album: the fury of grind excellently mixed with a taste for melody that is hard to find in bands of the genre (the definition of mathcore also derives from the early reviews of the BbtS's "twin" group, Human Remains).

Six years after its release, the BbtS announce the release in 2009 of their (alas) final album: "Heart of Darkness" (an obvious citation of J. Conrad's story, less obvious the reference, revealed in the booklet, to Orson Welles) and they return to the record market with a notable album. Technical proficiency above average and annihilating impact come together in a vortex mixing grind/death metal with fragmented solutions and rhythm changes typical of certain evolved hardcore: songs like "F-Unit" and "The Great American Dream Machine" are perfect war machines combining HC spontaneity with "mathematical" technicalities, while in songs like "Rust/Future Primitive" the songwriting slows down and opens the grind structure to new darker and more thoughtful solutions.

Compared to the past, it can be noted an abandonment of the mathcore sharpness in favor of the grindcore/bone-crushing side (something I personally appreciate a lot) and a further elevation of technical quality with the addition of a second guitar (Nick Hale, ex Premonitions Of War), the excellent vocal parts of Mike Oleander (always balancing between grindcore growls and clean vocals with almost stoner flair), and especially with the incredible drum work of David Witte (now in the very raw Municipal Waste and collaborator of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Melt Banana, and Phantomsmasher) that amazes for the devastating and precisely cold rhythmic contribution. In tracks like "Goliath", a little more thought out, or in the concluding "The Wolves Are Running", where tempo changes and the two guitars take over, giving us moments of considered fury, with breaks, mid-tempos interspersed with the classic blast-beat that engage for the spontaneity with which they are played.

Kudos also to the CD cover, very evocative, and to the lyrics, never banal and very introspective. If we must, a flaw can be found in the tracks "Inner Station" and "There Will Be Blood" which, while remaining very aggressive and excellently played, are a bit too anonymous in the metalcore standard.

If you want, you can listen to the whole album on lastFM.