BURNING SKIES – Greed. Filth. Abuse. Corruption

You want it hard? Fast? Relentless? Read on, this is the album for you.

Burning Skies from Bristol, England, just released their third album, fittingly though a bit cliché-like called Creed. Filth. Abuse. Corruption. The band is considered to be one of the best Metalcore outfits from England and gathered a solid fanbase with their aggressiveness exhibited on Murder By Means Of Existence and Desolation. Generally, album number three does not change the proven recipe completely, but the band rather varied spices nicely and came up with their most sophisticated, but at the same time rawest release. At first glance, that may sound like a contradiction in terms. But the two main aspects of this album are great technical guitar parts that deserve the listeners’ attention on one side, and a high speed Deathcore and Grindcore maelstrom on the other, often with an emphasis on the “core” part.

Every single one of the eleven songs on this 28 minute piece of hate is as heavy as it can become and a Metalfan’s feast. At the same time, even shorter tracks are anything but plain and straight. Blastbeat parts and doomy breakdowns lend variety to the compositions, and the complexity sets them apart from the simple Grindcore style Bands from Britain – many of them among the early Earache records releases – created during the nineties. Almost pushed into the background by the sheer force of the music, the two guitarists Liam and and Chuck crank out riffs that will leave your mouth hanging open, sometimes even delivering the goods for Mathcore enthusiasts who cannot have it complex enough. Of course, seconds later the band will grind down the neighborhood with another eruption of aggression which at times is a pity as some of the skills exhibited by the guitar players seem like pearls before swine, lost amidst the ostensible brutality of each composition.

The variety does not stop there – singer Merv changes from shouts to grunts to screams during the tracks, and although most of the time he is really difficult to understand, his voice accentuates the songs not necessarily with words, but with sounds as he uses his organ in an instrument like fashion. In general, he cannot truthfully be called a great singer, but he does his job well within his limits, although sometimes he sounds a bit over the top, as if he and the band wanted to fathom the extremes and went further than it was good for their potential.

Rounding off the positive aspects is the extraordinary clear and brutal production which was recorded in the Rape of Harmonies studios where several Metalcore bands have worked before, and so the sound also supports both antipodes of the musical scale of Burning Skies: Aggression and skillful guitar play.

On the downside one has to admit that the sheer brutality of Creed. Filth. Abuse. Corruption also makes it a bit tiresome, especially towards the end, a fact not even the shortness of the album can disguise. The later compositions follow the same course as the first ones, and several times one is reminded of an earlier track, checking the tracklist to make sure one is listening to a new song. The shortness and aggression of the album lets one draw similarities to Slayer’s Reign In Blood, and with that comparison the difference can be made obvious. Where Slayer ended the album with a stylistically different track, “Raining Blood,” Burning Skies just keeps on going, never alternating the style. With so many details crammed into each song making each song a remarkable effort, the same richness in details makes the whole a very demanding affair. Still, this is an extreme Metal album which will be difficult to beat this year as it feels like being hit by a high speed train at full throttle. Definitely something a Metal fan should know, if not own.