Burnt Earth Demo Review

Burnt Earth – Demo 2012 (Purgatory Records)

Almost everyone in a hardcore band likes metal. I say this as the most sweeping of generalisations of course, but as far as I know being or having been a fan of some form of metal, be is Black Sabbath or Burzum, seems to be an unwritten entry requirement to the school of hardcore. Burnt Earth were clearly very good at the whole headbanging thing because the vein of classic metal running through this six song release is so rich you half except them to have been wearing leather trousers while recording it.

It all starts, appropriately enough, with ‘Into (The Beginnings)’ which sounds eerily like the gallop bit from ‘Run To The Hills’ has been put in a blender and spat out again. Outrageous guitars solos not seen in hardcore outside of Hang The Bastard adorn ‘War Machine’, build on a solid foundation of 90s style riffs. ‘Human Race’ sees the vocals go all Lamb of God in places over a backing of pure thrash. There’s even a bell ringing at the start of the song for Christ sake…

I could keep going in this vein for quite some time. ‘Sentenced to Death’ could be an outtake from a Slayer session while ‘Judas’ is over 50% atmospheric, chant filled interlude. None of this is a bad thing. In fact it gives the whole demo a really rich, powerful feel that really marks it out as being something a little special. The vocal style and fist thumping breakdowns give it a firm hardcore grounding, but it is completely lacking in the boneheaded repetition that often mars releases in the ‘br00tal’ end of the genre.

Dare I say it but we may have on our hands that rare beast that is a good band in the endless wastelands of disappointment that is ‘metalcore’ these days.

(FFO: Hang the Bastard, Judas Priest, Leather Trousers,Slayer)

Best Track: The middle eight ‘Dark Twisted Path’ is something mighty to behold, but all in all ‘War Machines’ takes the prize.

Patchx