Burnt By The Sun Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution

Burnt By The Sun returns with their second effort (third if you include their split) and debut full-length. Luckily they don't waste anytime getting down to business with the opening track "Dracula with Glasses." Grind-powered grooves, rapid-fire tempo changes, and agonizing vocals are everywhere on this track, and quite frankly, they're everywhere on this entire release. The beginning of the second track, "Soundtrack to the Worst Movie Ever," sounds like something from Slayer with the palm-muted metal riff and ride cymbal action. Things quickly get interesting though as BBTS drops some strange double-stop guitar chords and intense double-bass runs. You get the idea. Burnt By The Sun combines the best of metal, hardcore, and grind into a cohesive ball of intensity. They're technically proficient, though not flashy, and they're diverse, without being all over the place. The best thing about the release is the overall focus of the effort. The record honestly gets better with each song, building a head of steam that literally boils over on the last two tracks, "Famke" and "Human I Steamroller" which are perfect examples of Burnt By The Sun at their best. Musically speaking, these guys are a tight unit. You have Mike Olender's shredded throat vocals, bullying their way through thick chunks of competent guitar action, all anchored by Dave Witte's pounding rhythms. They've definitely tightened up since their last effort. BBTS is adept at keeping thing interesting too, never getting bogged down in their own heaviness, from the cool guitar harmonics of "Boston Tea-Bag Party", all the way to the pleasent instrumental piece "Rebecca", which closes out the album on a mellow note. These guys have been getting a lot of press recently, and they deserve it. This really is a great example of metalcore at its most powerful. Of equal importance is the fact that BBTS actually has something to say. The lyrics truly are thought-provoking, and the fact that many of them are preceded by some odd movie quotes (from such gems as Happy Gilmore and Trading Places), gives everything a tongue-in-cheek feel, thus preventing the content from seeming heavy-handed. Moreover, they have some witty song titles as well. No it's not Drowningman caliber stuff, but any band that mentions Don Knotts and the Temple of Doom on the same tracklisting deserves some credit. I honestly can't think of one thing to slag on this record, so go buy it.