ALBUM REVIEW: No One Is Coming To Save Us – Burner
The presence of one Matthew Heafy on any young band’s new album is a good sign. The heavily tattooed TRIVIUM frontman has previously lent his approval to groups like MALEVOLENCE, ENTERPRISE EARTH, and numerous others who’ve gone on to enjoy improved fortunes, so he’s effectively become a heavy metal good luck charm. Consequently, the lads in BURNER must have been psyched when he agreed to appear on this. Not happy though, because if No One Is Coming To Save Us is anything to go by, they’ve never been happy.
BURNER’s full-length debut It All Returns To Nothing was a highly regarded slice of feral aggression, but cheerful it was not. It was one of the nastiest albums to crawl out from the UK underground in 2023, but compared to its successor, it was a veritable party. No One Is Coming To Save Us is gnarly as hell and might be one of the most misanthropic records you’ll hear in the next twelve months.
But it’s also very good. They’ve previously been labelled as a deathcore act, but if anything, BURNER are closer to the white-knuckle intensity of England’s extreme metal scene of the early-2000’s. Think the likes of LABRAT or JOHNNY TRUANT, the kind of burnt-to-a-crisp death metal and hardcore crossover that had all the commercial potential of re-opening a Blockbuster Video. Tracks like Blood River are utterly relentless, and as angry and violent as a rabid jackal.
It’s also surprisingly moving and there’s a noticeable undercurrent of sadness. The Agony Of Peace for instance, is a mid-album breathing space that moves at a more sedate pace and features a distinctly melancholic lead riff, while the opening The Third Revelation is filled with anguish. Vocalist Harry Nott never sings, but his lymph-node encouraging roars seem to emanate from a place of indescribable pain.
That being said, the main focus is on raw mosh fodder and No One Is Coming To Save Us delivers in abundance. Wish Granter is GUILT TRIP turned up to eleventy-stupid, Accelerationist is like hearing a crossover thrash band flirting with grindcore, and a cameo by CULT LEADER’s Anthony Lucero turns Kurtz into a blast of blood-drenched chaos. It’s dark, unrelenting and incredibly heavy; No One Is Coming To Save Us is only 48 minutes long, but you still have to pause it in the middle or making it to the end is a marathon.
The climactic Agni Kai brings the curtain down in spectacularly over-the-top fashion. It’s over seven minutes of nihilistic breakdowns and cathartic hardcore barks, with a few blissed-out sequences that offer a rare glimpse of serenity. It’s a fitting end to an impressive body of work, although it did leave us slightly worried about the mental state of the band themselves. No One Is Coming To Save Us is not an easy listen by any means, but it is a well-constructed and textured slice of audio extremity. Don’t be fooled by the fact that TRIVIUM’s perma-smiling singer is on the credits, this is grimmer than sifting through dirt in search of food and having to make a conscious effort to avoid the rat poison.
Rating: 8/10
No One Is Coming To Save Us is set for release on September 25th via Church Road Records.
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