Album Review: Burn Alaska - Burn Alaska

Burn Alaska are a melodic hardcore band from Leeds, very much in the vein of Modern Life in War and Comeback Kid, which they coincidently admit to on their press release. They’ve done pretty well for themselves in their short existence, considering they haven’t even released a record before this short 4 track EP, they’ve already shared the stage with bands such as Trash Talk and Static Radio, as well as embarking on a short European tour.

It’s clear that this band is all about the live shows, this may offer some explanation as to why this EP sounds like it’s been recorded in a shoebox…but maybe that’s the point, Burn Alaska are as raw a band as you will find, they’ll argue that they don’t need the polished sounding recordings that other bands rely on so heavily.

This self titled EP kicks off with ‘2003’ to that all too familiar sound of guitars feeding back…before the band throw themselves into the song at full throttle, due to the recording quality previously mentioned it does all sound a bit messy, but the band still manages to get their point across.

The lovely distorted guitar intro to 2nd track ‘Your Bodies’ A Temple’ is almost reminiscent of early Thursday and the track really begins to build until the song kicks in, which unfortunately simply signals a return to a similar sound as the previous track. This is by no means bad but I’ve heard better if I’m honest.

The rest of the EP does improve, almost becoming slightly poppier dare I say it. I think this suits the band much better, with the group shout outs and injection of more melodic vocals I think Burn Alaska begin to show their true potential.

I would say that if you are heavily into fast paced, melodic hardcore then these guys are worth checking out but I would go to a show, because I imagine that is where this band really excel. This EP, for me, serves as just a throw away demo that simply leaves me convinced that the band possibly have some potential, but aren’t quite there yet…in the studio at least.

2/5

'Burn Alaska' by Burn Alaska is available now through the bands online store.

Burn Alaska on MySpace

Matt Buck