Reviews

New Jersey’s Screams From The Burn Unit offer the underground’s most interesting and intelligible debuts this year. The five piece is built on manic energy, sending tempos swinging wildly as guitars flail and hardcore melts away to ambient groove before it all crashes back into a grind-laced cacophony. The vocals too careen between poles, from pop-hardcore singing to mind-blistering screams with reckless abandon. The band is defined by a lack of definition, a willingness to throw all their shit at the wall at once and hope that it all sticks.
 
Track six, the unfortunately named “If It’s Going To Be That Kinda Party, I’m Gonna Stick My Dick In The Mashed Potatoes,” is Culling Songs most adventurous cut as it eschews a ‘traditional’ breakdown for a hard clap/ sing along moment that would be at home in any fifties sock hop band’s repertoire.  It’s a total shock, as if that electricity the band has been mainlining escaped their overcooked veins and leapt off the recording directly into your nervous system.  It’s a great song, with off-time guitars chugging heavily over a surprisingly ingratiating melodic line.
 
Other standout tracks include the straight ahead Dillinger channeling "It Looks Like Cleopatra Is Not The Only Queen Of Denial" and the furious “Red Scare (Seriously, Somebody is Going To Get Fucking Hurt.”  SFTBU play around with guitar effects in the latter while the uplifting pseudo-commie chant “Red Army - Rise!” washes overboard. My main problem is these guys, while playing especially proficient new school hardcore and punk rock, don’t seem to take themselves seriously enough. Young bands have every right to just be thrilled all the time that they are doing what they love, but at the same time, a little more professionalism would give this great debut a more timeless quality. Plus, SFTBU sample Al Pachino in The Devil’s Advocate way too much.  Seriously. Screams From The Burn Unit have a warmly welcomed anti-diety approach, but jesus h. christ, too much Pachino.