Customer Reviews

Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution

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burnt by the sun is back with their latest effort for relapse records, titled "soundtrack to the personal revolution". this record, in my own opinion, is that burnt by the sun bring us a heavier, much more technical record this time around then their deubt e.p. for relapse. the music on this record can be described in one word. that word is amazing. this record owns. end of story. produced by matt bayles, i feel that this record is flawless. each song is a work of art in my opinion. the first song, "dracula with glasses" is brutal. it starts off with crunchy, heavy guitars, heart stopping drums and killer vocals. after listening to this record many, many times i still often sit and wonder how mike olender doesn't lose his voice night after night of screaming the way that he does on this record. needless to say, he's a very [angry] man on this record. his lyrics are incredible, reading them makes you open your eyes to what is going around all around us. after all, mike is a very consciencous guy when it comes to addressing issues that are in the news every day. the lyrics and the music seem to fit perfectly so i won't argue with the lyrical content of this record. anyway, back to the music. as the record continues on, it gets better and better. each song has it's fair share of technical, dillinger-esque guitar riffs, precise double bass pedal, deep gutteral, brutal vocals and beautiful bass lines. this is definately a record that everyone must own if they are a fan of intense, heavy music. some other notable tracks on this record include: "dow jones and the temple of doom", "boston tea bag party", "mortimer", "famke", and "rebecca" just to name a few. the record closes with the instrumental "rebecca". all i can say about this song is that is it beautiful. there's nothing else that could be added to that song which would make it better then it already is. it's that good. alright, so i'm a sucker for the nice melodic outro's to records. sue me. seriously, this record is incredible. you need this cd. you need to see this band live, they will blow you away. they are incredible. i love this band. so should you.

Listining to my teacher and not being bored at all!Every song rocks the hell out of you leaving you asking where the f*ck your ears went?!By far a topnotch release by bbts. Own it!

I didn't like Endeavor. Let me rephrase that...I HATED Endeavor. For those unaware, Endeavor was the singer of Burnt By The Sun's first band that made a name for itself in the hardcore/metal scene in the mid 90s. Being the pessimist that I am, when I heard the singer of Endeavor was in a new band that had signed to Relapse and they had been getting comparisons to Coalesce, my natural instincts kicked in and I immediately accused them of being another one of "those bands". I shut them off altogether and went about life as normal.

At practice about five months ago, my guitarist hands me this CD sampler of Relapse and Victory Records bands. I listened to the Victory stuff first and laughed at how unimpressive these bands were. This was supposed to be both labels showing off their best metal offerings and next to Bloodlet, Victory had failed, as is to be expected. Relapse's lineup lead off with Burnt By The Sun. From opening note, I felt like I had been fired out of a cannon into a brick wall. "Dracula With Glasses" came firing at me with a vengeance and for two weeks after, I kept that horrendous sampler in the car and gave BBTS two or three spins a day until my copy of the CD had arrived.

Much in the way "Dracula" jumped down my throat, the rest of "Soundtrack" followed suit in uniformly brutal fashion. Each song made quick use breakneck tempo changes, searing vocal stylings and chainsaw-like fretboard mastery. Burnt By The Sun displays a formula that bears elements of metal, rock, grind and while none of the sub-genres are that foreign to each other, they do it without pretension or flaw. Not a single note is missed, nor a cymbal crash forgotten. Everything done here is very deliberate and forceful.

I've learned this lesson many times over: never doubt the minds at Relapse's ability to select a stable of bands that will clearly decapitate you in the most positive fashion known to man. While some bands and labels are constantly gunning for forefunning brutality as their calling card, Burnt By The Sun approach their ferocious craft with calculating brilliance and movement. You simply must hear this to believe it.

Metal goes to the movies, comes home, and writes an album about them with enough political sensibility to give an aural wedgie to the Dick Cheney's of the world. Lightning fast drumming coupled with fuzzy and innovative guitarists provide the backbone of these metal maniacs' debut album. Burnt By The Sun avoids the common cliches found in too much of modern metal by using those tricks that your guitar teacher taught you that you never thought would work in a song and by straying away from common tempos and transitions. Burnt By The Sun aren't reinventing the wheel, but rather asking why cars don't hover yet.

By unique I don't mean these guys are reinventing the wheel. They are different however because their music is heavy and technical, but the band also has something to say. Their lyrics are a big thing that sets them apart, unlike a lot of metal bands their lyrics are really well written and aren't all about devils and wizards. The band isn't afraid to be a little soft as they show on the instrumental closer "Rebbecca".To put it short Soundtrack to a Personal Revolution is the best metal release of the year so far. I am really anxious to see what this band does in the future.

I just can't call this death metal. There is a big difference between "hardcore" and "metalcore". This is NOT hardcore, hardcore is... bands like Chimairia (or however you spell it), Diecast, Nothingface, Hatebreed, and Cave-In. Burnt By The Sun is metalcore. Big difference. Burnt By The Sun is more like Lamb Of God and Pig Destroyer than any of those I mentioned above. The songs do have crazy titles (Dow Jones And The Temple Of Doom). The best tune is probably "Don Knotts". Oh, and say what you want about "Rebecca". I like when metal bands throw curveballs and this fits in well; the first 9 songs of the album are like fighting a war and then the last song is like all the sadness after the war, if you know what I mean. If you like the album "Prowler In The Yard" by Pig Destroyer, you can most likely enjoy this.

Burnt by the Sun's new album was one of my most eagerly anticipated albums for 2002 (aside from Poison the Well's 'Tear From the Red' and Swift's upcoming independent release 'Waging War'). Aside from the album falling just under a disappointing 30 minutes long, what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in quality. BBTS works to further the expansion of the noise/metalcore genre, a genre already known for it's experimentation and lack of traditional boundaries. The album starts off with the track 'Dracula with Glasses', a short abrupt track that clocks in at just under two minutes long. An amazing album intro (and one of the better tracks on the album), this track sets the pace for the rest of the album. Punchy guitar grooves, insane drumming that intertwines off-time signatures with blast beats and mind-numbing double kick work, and vocals that don't show the slightest signs of emo. (Read: PURE METAL STYLES! \m/) These guys can effortlessly blend conflicting time patterns together and still make it work so you can move your head to it. With a technical style similar to that of Meshuggah or Dillenger Escape Plan, Burnt by the Sun have more than enough to offer metal and hardcore for an already VERY promising year of hard music.

Recommended tracks: 'Dracula with Glasses', 'Boston Tea-Bag Party', 'Famke'

after seeing burnt by the sun multiple times in 2001, and constantly listening to their debut 4-song self-titled ep, and their split with fellow (now sadly broken up) new jersey grindcore band luddite clone, i was looking forward to their first full-length a great deal. it didn't quite meet my expectations. sure, this is burnt by the sun, and sure, it's good, even great, but it did not quite meet my expectations. this is a band that mixes many genres of metal (grind, black, noisecore, etc), but this cd seems to me to have a more hardcore-ish tinge to it than their previous works. the strange, incoherent, bellowing-low to screeching-high screamed vocals (wich have always reminded me of brutal truth) are still here, but now there are also spoken word vocals (and i don't mean one or two isolated cases, they're in almost every song) that detract from the screaming. there are a lot more breakdowns and danceable parts (okay, i'm showing my anti-mosh bias here, but grindcore isn't supposed to be about moshing). even the drums are not nearly as over-the-top as they used to be. also, the last song is a rather annoying classical guitar etude played on an electric guitar (i like classical guitar, but this isn't very complicated, and it's really out of place). also, the length of the cd is just slightly under thirty minutes, it could stand to be a song or three longer. all that said, this is a very good new-school grind (no death metal here) album. the lyrics are intelligent and well-written, and not nearly as abstract as they were on bbt's two earlier releases, dealing with political issues such as the economy's control over the individual and the election of 2000. the production on this is amazing as well; you can hear each individual snare strike of the inhumanly fast blast beats. the guitar work is still amazingly technical, and the time signatures are still strange and almost free-jazz-esque. i'd recommend this cd to anyone who is open-minded musically, who likes noise, who likes pretty much any sort of metal, or who is into heavy music and is looking for something intelligent and well-written to listen to.

There is no second guessing why this album was made, Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution is ruthless in its fierce manner. A prime example of this is shown in 'Dracula With Glasses', the album opener. For as short as the track is, it is filled with plenty to become dazzled by. The incredible drumming of Dave Witte never ceases to amaze the hell out of me. Being able to keep a clean focused rhythm with his never-ending, awe-inspiring fills, is certainly a premier drummer in an overcrowded metal scene. With split second pauses that would destroy any inexperienced band, it's a miracle that Burnt By the Sun are able to keep chaos together. Fighting for the limelight, the guitars let loose punishing riffs filled with squealing harmonics.
'Boston Tea-Bag Party', somehow catchy underneath all of the harsh and unforgiving tones, is an essential song from this album. The guitarists grind away with the driving force of the double bass pedal. With what I believe is the best display of the vocals on the entire album, the only way I can think to describe Mike Olender's voice is a mix between frantic yelp and an abrasive howl. Regularly adding more uncertainty to an already unstructured album, his screaming is definitely takes getting used to. Sooner or later you will find that his voice compliments the severity of the music perfectly. An odd harmonic rhythm starts being played between the two guitarists and one breaks off into the same rhythm minus the harmonics.This section is one of the highlights of the album for me because of the dynamics that are exhibited, and the creative interplay between the talented guitarists. 'Shooter McGavin' in all of it's triplet filled glory parades around the originality of the guitarists, with the bass trudging along. Most of the bass work included in this album is very reminiscent of the guitar riffs being played. Subtle fills and counter rhythms occupy the spaces where the guitar is playing on the higher end of the fretboard.

There isn't to much to say about this except? It's realy , truly, beyond words can discribe heavy! Best songs ? 2.soundtrack to the worse movie ever

4. Boston tea bag party

8. famke

Just buy it for thos 3 tracks...Alright?!