Phonotonal
This Blood Burns

This Blood Burns
It Begins with I

This Blood Burns are an angsty hardcore band that sound like an angry sibling of The Used.

‘It Begins with I’ explodes with vocals at first spawned from a harcore demon before chilling down to a solid EMO. A neat combination of the two leads up to a Therapy? style ending with vocals still spitting fire after the music ends.

Once the scene has been set by the uncompromising first track, each subsequent song manages to pull a little surprise out of the bag. ‘Red or Dead’ has great drumming and hooky guitars, which both shine during a Smashing Pumpkins style break. This song sounds very different to the first one and the slight mutation of their sound continues throughout the single.

Final song, ‘Everyone Knows this is Nowhere’, is a slightly more emotional song with Malkmus-esque vocals and rich warm guitars. This is the kind of song Pavement might have produced while writing one of their later albums.

Overall, maybe the bass guitar doesn’t quite have the kick it needs in the mix, but this is a minor production detail when This Blood Burns have managed to pull off both angst and volume without the use of wall-of-noise tactics.

My personal favorite was the second one… No, wait, it was the first one…. Sorry, it’s the third one… No, the second…

Written by Smith on

Stuart 'Saur' Smith was a prolific writer for The Mag throughout the magazine's lifetime. He combined a day job of temporary office jobs in London with a nightlife of trawling the capital's music venues looking for talent. As well as writing about music, he was a session musician who featured on a number of singles in the 90s. Today, Stuart is a Chief Writer for Phonotonal.
Stuart Smith

Discover More Music