Burnt By The Sun / Luddite Clone
Split Release

November 2000
Released: 2000, Ferret
Rating: 3.0/5
Reviewer: Nathan Robinson

This split release caught my interest due to Burnt By The Sun having three ex-Human Remains members: Dave Witte (drums), Ted Patterson (bass), and former vocalist Paul Miller now solely on guitar. Human Remains was a technical grind band with wacky guitars, intricate drumming, strange arrangements, and screaming vocals partially similar to death metal vocal god Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx). Burnt By The Sun doesn’t measure up to Human Remains in terms of technicality and originality, but they are still quite similar in terms of playing and composition. And this is the kind of grind I like. Burnt By The Sun doesn’t blast beat their way through every song. The tempo varies throughout each of the three songs present on this disc. And although the guitars aren’t as wacky as Human Remains, they’re still chaotic and intense as hell. It’s a little hard to hear exactly what they’re playing due to the extreme nature of the music, but with time and repeated listens it’ll come together. Drummer Dave Witte is still Dave Witte. His drumming is as agile as ever! The vocals are similar to Human Remains, but are a little more typical of grindcore yet still indecipherable. Song titles like “When Corporations Rule Your Mom”, “Blow Job City”, and “There are Pictures of Me on the Internet” would suggest some rather lame lyrics, but I’m not quite sure there’s a correlation between them and the song titles. The lyrics are pretty interesting because the message is not obvious, and they’re written as if it’s just part of a conversation, but only being able to hear one side of the discussion. The production is pretty fucking heavy too. The next time you get pissed at work, pop this disc in your radio CD player, turn up the volume to 10, and start hitting everything in sight! For some more information on Burnt By The Sun check out their site at: http://www.burntbythesun.com



Luddite Clone closes the disc with three tracks, for a total of six tracks on this split release. Luddite Clone is a new name to me. They also play somewhat technical grind not too far from both Human Remains and Burnt By The Sun. Agonizing vocals are backed by intensely chaotic music with abrupt changes throughout. These guys will be blasting away at full speed only to stop and crank out a short bass line, then blast again, break down into a quiet little high-hat fill, then throw some slower sludge at you to finish off the song. Variety is a beautiful thing. The only complaint I have here are the samples thrown in as intros or elsewhere. They’re more annoying than anything else. You can check out Luddite Clone at: http://www.hivemedia.com/ludditeclone/



Overall, both bands’ songs are too damn short. Some barely pass the two-minute mark. But it will be nice to see them come out with full-length albums soon. Their record label’s site can be found at: http://www.ferretstyle.com Sometimes when you’re pissed, bands like The Haunted and Exhorder just don’t cut it and you need something more extreme. And this CD does nicely.