Burning Love
Rotten Thing to Say
Chris Colohan has never had any problem getting good reviews
from the hardcore community. Fronting
bands like Left for Dead, The Swarm, Countdown to Oblivion, and of course Cursed,
his place as one of the most respected men in hardcore has been both
well-earned and relatively unquestionable.
As a result, it becomes increasingly daunting to criticize the man’s
work.
I say all of this as a caveat to this review because I want
readers to understand that I know that not everything Colohan touches is gold,
and he isn’t in fact some sort of golden god...but Rotten Thing to Say honestly proves that if this man is singing for
a band then it’s a smart move to sit up and take notice. Well some write off Burning Love as the “not
as heavy as Cursed” band, but if you throw out any expectations (good or bad)
about what this band should be, then you are left with one of the tightest,
most interesting bands in hardcore.
Blending rock, punk, hardcore, and metal, Rotten Thing to Say really never lets up
in any meaningful way. I’ve already
gushed over songs like Karla in
another review and on our podcast (thanks for all the downloads so far), but
coupled with Hateful Comforts, the Body, and Pig City I & II, this album is
an impressive improvement over their much-played-on-my-ipod debut album.
Another reason that I love this album is rooted in something
I hate about the internet. With the
proliferation of websites like Reddit, a virulent, thuggish, and ill-informed
kind of atheism has firmly taken hold within various online communities. Now don’t get me wrong, I love me some
atheism...but I’ve always tried to be an atheist without being a complete and
total Bill-O’Reilly-style dick about it.
Songs like Superstitious Friend
and Made out of Apes help show that people
can express themselves eloquently and challenge the beliefs of others without
seeming as bad as the fundamentalist you oppose.
p.s. I put up the Toronto record release show cover because it's even better than the actual album cover. Fuck Rob Ford.
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