Burn Your World - Burn Your World EP (2011)

Burn Your World is an emerging band on the Salt Lake City scene, playing a fairly unique combination of metal and hardcore which draws in influences from all over the spectrum: punk, thrash, death, grind and black metal can all clearly be heard below the coarse 'core bark of the vocals. There is a pretty predictable flux between the band's faster, go for the throat emotional outbursts and the breakdowns, and this is perhaps its most distinctly hardcore (or metalcore) characteristic; but what I really dug about these guys is how they implement the melodic or dissonant textures that occur naturally in blackened or melodic death straight into the verse rhythms, as if it could never occur otherwise.

They keep their tracks relatively short and to the point within the 2-4 minute range, which is more than acceptable for the genre, and they also exhibit a strong sense of control here, not as wild or off the hinge as something like my region's local heroes Converge, Backstabbers Inc. or Trap Them. Just a few riffs in each tune, and the transitions are almost always spotted a mile away, but this is not a style I approach for its complexity. I love the almost Bad Religion melodic fixture in the verse of "Vanished", and wish they'd have used more of this throughout the EP, but in their defense they're throwing down a lot of variation. "Suffering" sounds like a melodic death/thrash track throughout most of its playtime, and "It Was Arson" is more like a dour street core interspersed with moderate little blast sections and grooving breakdowns. A lot of older school punk and hardcore circa Minor Threat also looms in "Misanthropy", though the vocals are obviously far angrier.

If there were a few places Burn Your World could improve, it might be in the construction of the breakdowns and a few of the faster rhythms. For instance, even though "Vanished" begs for a mosh segment to follow up the faster verse, the chugging simplicity here is underwhelming. Same goes for some of the grittier thrash-core "It Was Arson" or the sluggish, choppy cuts in the middle of "Hollow Ground" (though in that last one, they at least apply a bit of melody to the chugging). None of them feel all that intense, and while this is likely to differ in the live setting, the spaces they appear on this recording feel often lacking or empty. That said, the production is pretty clean for a self-promoted release, and the mixture of styles could be unstoppable with just a bit more musical gestation between the constituents. This isn't the most consistent record, I'll admit, but the band's certainly authentic, and those who would welcome a more brutally fronted, metallic incarnation of, say, Avail might find something to enjoy here.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

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