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Burn the Empire > The Iconoclast > Reviews > malphas94
Burn the Empire - The Iconoclast

Promising Follow-Up - 80%

malphas94, January 20th, 2016

Burn the Empire is a young band from Philadelphia that came on strong into the local scene in 2014 with their full length debut, “Dethrone,” an album that features a style of death metal akin to Rivers of Nihil and Job for a Cowboy, further bolstered by the incorporation of progressive and jazz elements and featuring politically charged lyrics entailing themes of anti-government and corruption. Their 2015 follow-up EP “The Iconoclast” picks up right where they left off; building upon their solid foundation and offering a glimpse into a promising future.

For a band that flirts dangerously close with deathcore, Burn the Empire have quite a unique sound that rarely sounds contrived or boring. Only one song exceeds three minutes, yet, there are a lot of interesting elements going on. The standard tech death formula is fully fleshed out here with jazz elements, well-placed breakdowns, clean guitar passages, and even some avant-garde tremolo harmonies that would fit right in on an obscure black metal record.

Most commendable of all is the effective technicality of the instruments. As a self-proclaimed technical death metal band, it would be all too easy for them to fall into the trap that hinders most bands within their genre; in overlooking the concept of creating a good song in exchange for a pretentious display of technical bravado. Not the case with these guys; as the instruments co-exist harmoniously within well-crafted, if rather unorthodox song structures.

All in all, Burn the Empire effectively follow up their debut album with a short but solid EP that demonstrates progression in their sound and in doing so, provides a glimpse into a promising future. It will be interesting to see where they go from here.