BURNT BY THE SUN
Self Titled EP (Relapse)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry

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< IMG HSPACE=10 VSPACE=2 ALIGN=LEFT SRC="pics/burnt_by_the_sun.jpg"> A preposterously passionate bombardment of hardcore fury. The walls of the Parsippany, New Jersey studio that this EP was recorded in must have been shaking while guitar strings snapped and drumsticks were reduced to sawdust for the hillbilly bar down the road. A complimentary nod in Drop Dead's direction as this band manage to sound weighty and swift at the same time. Typically a group is either Swans Filth cumbersome or seem like Digital Hardcore in the analogue domain, but played on balsa instruments with an equally anorexic recording budget. Burnt By The Sun, Napalm Death, Drop Dead, and Nuclear Assault (remember them?) all top my short list of bands capable of both.

While the newer hardcore scene is awash in the limitations of its own stereotypes (which, up to now, have been every "scene's" disgrace) Burnt By The Sun are able to forego that whole 'hi-five, brah' American jock mentality with an ease that might suggest that those types perplex the band, too.

Burnt By The Sun's livid earthquake punk does more in the eight and a half minutes this four-song collection lasts than some bands entire catalogs can, and that's a rather healthy sign this early on as a band.

www.burntbythesun.com.

© 2001 - Jason Thornberry