BURNING GHATS: “SOMETHING OTHER THAN YOURSELF” (A REVIEW AND A SONG PREMIERE)

 Album Reviews, Premieres  2 Responses »
Aug 062013
 

The one thing Vancouver’s Burning Ghats have always had going for them is the capacity to trigger an explosion of abrasive mayhem. They sound like they’ve got high-octane gasoline for blood that someone ignites with an acetylene torch right before they kick into gear. But as time has passed, they’ve become ever more interesting, and their debut album, Something Other Than Yourself, is their best music yet.

It takes a special kind of talent to rip through 10 songs in 20 minutes, with more than half of them coming in at slightly more than a minute or less, and have each of the songs sound like they mean something. They’re like members of a big violent family — you can see the DNA all the cousins share, but they’re each distinctive. Not that you’d want to have a sit-down dinner with this family, at least not without putting away the breakables and all the sharp things.

What they share: discord and dissonance, feedback galore, hardcore fury, crust-punk chords, kidney-punching bass, drums that clatter and hit the d-beat, and vocals bled raw, like a throat being cinched with barbed wire. (Oh man, are the vocals good.) Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET: BURNING GHATS’ NEW EP

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  14 Responses »
Jul 202011
 

This is the third time we’ve written about Vancouver’s Burning Ghats. Previously, we reviewed their initial three-song demo last July (here), and then we reviewed their first EP — Fool’s Gold — last September (here). Now, the band have a second EP scheduled for release on August 2. It’s called Different Names for the Same Face. As in the case of the band’s first two releases, it features eye-catching artwork by the band’s bassist, Cam Strudwick (only half of which is visible up above — we’ll show you the rest later).

I had to think carefully about where and how to listen to this new EP. The first time I cranked up the volume on Fool’s Gold, it took me hours to get my cat down off the ceiling, I found a hole in the wall curiously shaped like my head, and I’d busted up a bunch of furniture but didn’t remember doing it. On the plus side, the music killed all the insects in my house and left them liquified in a pool of their own guts.

This time I decided to take precautions and just listened to the EP’s five songs through headphones. While tied to a chair. With a piece of rawhide between my teeth so I wouldn’t bite my tongue off. Actually, I couldn’t find a piece of rawhide, so I just used one of my cat’s chew-toys. I made it all the way through the EP without damaging any more furniture, except for the chair. I did bite through the chew toy. I’m pretty sure I swallowed part of it. My cat is pissed.

After the jump, I’ll try to explain the experience. And guess what? We also have the pleasure of premiering the EP’s first song for your listening pleasure — though we take no responsibility for any injury that may occur to your person, property, or pets. Continue reading »

BURNING GHATS: FOOL’S GOLD

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Sep 022010
 

(Thinking out loud, which is how we do our best thinking. And possibly our only thinking.) Ah, what have we hear? Why, it’s new metal! Should we listen? Let’s weigh the pro’s and con’s.

On the plus side: It’s an EP from Burning Ghats. We sure liked the last thing from them we heard (see our review here). Maybe this will be good, too. They also have another cool album cover to go with the music. We like pretty album covers. We especially like the big crab. Lots of times, eye-catching album covers mean good music.

Also, we can download the EP from our favorite online distribution platform, Bandcamp. And Burning Ghats have set up the download with one of those pay-whatever-you-like choices. Awesome!

Now, what about the con’s? Fuck, we can only think of one negative — we don’t have enough fucking time to listen to all the fucking music we want to hear! Even though we’ve shoved all music other than extreme metal out of our lives, there’s still not enough fucking time! If we listen to this, it means we won’t be listening to something else today.

Well, that’s a pretty piss-poor reason not to hear this EP. We can carve out more time today by ignoring our friends more than usual, going to the bathroom less, and cutting back (more) on sleep. Besides, there’s always tomorrow to listen to other music, right? We won’t die in our sleep or get cut down crossing the street, most likely. So there — problem solved!  (more after the jump, of course . . .) Continue reading »

SUNDAY SLAUGHTERFEST

 Album Reviews  No Responses »
Jun 272010
 

For some people, Sunday is a day of rest. For us, it’s just another day when we parboil our heads with metal. And on this Sunday, we’re featuring two unsigned bands we think are worth checking out. As it happens, both have made their latest offerings available for free download, and we’re making it easy on you by adding download links right here at NCS. So, if you’re in the mood to flash-fry your gray matter while you, uh, rest, then read on.

BURNING GHATS

Burning Ghats is a band from Vancouver, British Columbia, and they’ve produced an eclectic, three-song demo that’s very cool. “Contombs” is a high-energy blast of grindcore that features unusually inventive, technical guitar leads, pummeling drums, and Converge-style vocals. We would have been happy with two more songs in the vein of “Contombs,” but we got a surprise with the second song, “Chorea Pseudonym”. It starts off with the pacing ratcheted down, but the time signatures then proceed to jump all over the place, with bursts of flashy, math-metal technicality in the guitar leads.

There’s more nimble-fingered guitar mayhem in the third installment, “Hemophiliac Gash,” which zooms back up to grindcore pace. Right before the song’s mid-point, there’s a jazzy solo (almost sounds like a sax), and then the bottom drops out of the rhythm — a long, slow breakdown carried along by the bass and drums and experimental-sounding guitars meandering in the background, before one last eruption of blowtorch fire.

In a nutshell, the Burning Ghats demo is packed with hardcore attitude, grindcore energy, and tech-death flash. It’s a real head-turner. (lots more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »