EP REVIEW: A Vision Of The End – Burner

You hear it a lot nowadays, but it really does feel like the UK underground is on top of its game at the moment. It seems we barely go a week without a new band breaking through in one way or another; some push boundaries, others throw back, while others still just have something important to say. The latest example? London’s BURNER. Homed very suitably on Church Road Records, the death metal/hardcore four-piece have built up a solid head of steam over the past few months, with their eyes fixed firmly on this Friday and the release of their debut EP A Vision Of The End.

Arriving to a reasonable amount of hype then, A Vision Of The End definitely lives up to expectations. While the marriage of death metal and hardcore is nothing new – in the past couple of months alone we’ve had some excellent examples from the likes of HERIOT and CASKET FEEDER, for example – BURNER’s central success here is that they seem to strike the balance pretty perfectly. Even if we have heard the individual components before, everything just seems to fit in its rightful place; the angular edges of a band like CONVERGE, the buzzsaw fury of ENTOMBED, the sludgy heft of CROWBAR… all these elements and more coalesce to form a work of cohesive and gripping force.

Opener Ingsoc shows off most of this from the outset, its swampy intro soon rolling into a chaotic hardcore rager. From here, the band hit us pretty quickly with Nothing But War and Death Worship, with both of these mining similar territory in tight two-and-a-bit-minute runtimes. The stand out really comes with the title track however; this one sprawls across a full six-and-a-half minutes, and naturally makes for the record’s most expansive and dynamic offering. As indeed with the entire EP, guitarist Nathan Harlow’s riffs are absolutely massive, particularly as the track draws to its most crushing of conclusions following a quiet clean guitar/spoken word break.

Alongside the riffs, another of the most impressive weapons in BURNER’s arsenal is vocalist Harry Nott. His delivery is versatile throughout, ranging from high and piercing fry screams to low death metally gutturals with apparent ease. It helps just lift the record out of any risk of sounding too one-note, instead highlighting and accentuating the varied violent aspects of the band’s sound. Crucially, all this comes with a lyrical focus centred primarily on real world horrors, with tracks like Ingsoc and Siege Fire taking aim at authoritarianism and the hypocrisy of the church respectively, and the former dedicated proudly and specifically to “the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, the peoples of Hong Kong, Tibet and Taiwan”.

Compelling to the very end with closer Rat King Crown, this EP marks a powerful opening statement for BURNER. While it would be easy enough to play a game of spot the influence, there’s no denying this is a band well on their way to carving out their own little niche in the crowded and thriving scene that is the UK underground. If it wasn’t clear already, these guys are definitely ones to watch, with their best most likely yet to come.

Rating: 8/10

A Vision Of The End is set for release on June 17th via Church Road Records.

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