Review: Burnt By The Sun

Burnt By The Sun
“Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution”
(Relapse Records)

All of the time these guys have spent in the sun has finally fried their brains and forced them to produce incredibly scary music!  “Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution” is an amazing follow-up to their self-titled debut which killed during the time of its release.  Established in New Jersey in 1999, the style they create is a nasty mixture of hardcore and metal which is somewhat reminiscent of bands such as Earth Crisis and older Deftones.  The amazing stunts performed on the guitars are well worth spending the money to buy this CD.  Obviously kick-ass players, Burnt By The Sun is a band you can listen to and wonder how the hell they play those lines.  Cuts like “Dracula with Glasses” and “Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom” wake you into a world of vivid realities.  Interesting side note about the lyrics: The lyricist, Mike Olender, feels you don’t have to sing about “tales of hell and necrophilia” to make a hardcore song interesting, hence song names like “Don Knotts” and “Human I Steamroller”.  The words are great, but you will never understand what he is screaming unless you read the lyrics .  The last cut, “Rebecca,” is an attempt at something different; this solo guitar work is slow and soft and rounds off the album well.