Burn Your World: Full Dark, No Stars

The title of this EP, Full Dark, No Stars, is also the name of a short story collection by Stephen King. One of the stories in that collection, "A Good Marriage," represent's a woman's growing horror as she realizes that her husband is a notorious serial killer. It's a bleak tale that exploits multiple fears, including those that suggest we may never really know those we love the most. The rest of the collection is just as terrifying.

I don't know the extent of Burn Your World's interest in Stephen King, but I do know that both the author and the band are capable of entering spaces so dark that there is no possibility of light. The difference between the two is that Burn Your World explores the dark without offering (as King sometimes does) a glimmer of light. And that is what makes this band's music such a nice fit within the blackened death and crust genres.

On this EP there is no light, only a darkness brimming with despair. The music on this recording, equal parts harsh, aggressive, and pummeling, is bleak and hateful, a series of powerful bursts reflecting on a world so dark there is nothing else to know or see or experience. Indeed, most of the lyrics here focus on a solitary figure, one that sees the world as a place of nothingness and meaninglessness. As a line from the title track suggests, "there is no catharsis" and "no deeper understanding."

The music suits such lyrical moods effectively. Several of the tracks have killer riffs, but the music is less a paean to the riff (as in doom metal) than it is a blasting wave of encrusted force. I mentioned to Ross, the band's bass player, that I especially like Burn Your World's middle sections. Having listened to this EP several times now, I find those middle sections even better with each listen. My favorite examples on this release are "Earthmover" and "Sea of Trees," two tracks with killer middles that bring out some groove and some headbanging. On "Sea of Trees," the chugging middle section adds greater depth to the overall structure.

There are times on this EP rhythm and style of the music seems to hang on by its fingernails, as though the band is organizing the chaos just long enough to give listeners a glimpse of what lies inside the darkness. Lovecraft suggested that human beings would recoil in horror at their place within a vast and unfeeling cosmos. Burn Your World shrinks things down to much smaller spaces, playing on the same kinds of fears Poe had—that there is nothing and that the grave offers the most welcome embrace of all. I don't mean to give too much place to literary figures here, but I am always fascinated by the ways extreme music like this shares a similar fascination with the possibility of nothingness.

This is a strong release by an energetic and talented band. Check it out!

Track Listing:
1. Full Dark, No Stars
2. No Funeral
3. Earthmover
4. Sea of Trees

Added: December 1st 2016
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Bandcamp Page
Hits: 1546
Language: english

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