Album Review: Burner – No One Is Coming To Save Us (Church Road Records)

Burner return with their highly anticipated sophomore album ‘No One is Coming to Save Us’, out 25th September via Church Road Records.

Burner, the blackened death and hardcore unit, have come a very long way since they released It All Returns to Nothing, their debut album in 2023, and all the proof anyone needs is in this album. Instrumentally, vocally, lyrically, they’ve grown so much, and are defining themselves in different ways.

I’m so glad Burner exist, and that they’re exploring and experimenting, but I hate that we, humanity as a whole, is such a violent, angry, and hateful thing that an album like ends up being presented. No One is Coming to Save Us is a sobering listen, yet the despair is multi-layered and Burner aren’t just eulogising here. We, the species, are not without hope and that is an aspect of this album that can’t be ignored.

What also can’t be ignored is how Burner have expanded their sound here. Stepping into post-metal territories, experimenting with more cinematic atmospheres, and better balancing their heavier, more ferocious side. This is a huge step up from the debut and all because of a track like The Agony of Peace. It comes in the latter part of the album, but I must have listened to this slice of unbearable beauty and unrelenting intensity twenty times before I moved onwards.

Don’t think that what comes before doesn’t have captivating qualities either though. Not when the album opens with something as confident and boundary pushing as The Third Revelation and immediately follows that up with a brutish and bullish explosion of hardcore heaviness via What Will You Give? A track that features the immense talents of Sylosis’ Josh Middleton.

Josh is one of three guests on the album, with the others being Trivium’s Matthew K. Heafy and Cult Leader’s Anthony Lucero. The former delivers a trademark level of metallised fire on the frenetic and dangerous sounding Sunrise, Parabellum. The latter adds a freshness to a vitriolic effort that hits its peak around the two-minute mark and stays sky high to the end. It says a lot about vocalist Harry’s growth that he can hold his own with ease when working with these names.

Burner’s chemistry has always been impressive, but I think they’ve reached a whole new level here and it comes through strongly via their songwriting. This album is better put together, more anthemic, more focused, and more exciting as it constantly shifts. All while not losing the unforgiving fire and fury that makes Burner such a head turning listen.

It is so cool that a track like Blood River can have a chorus, instrumental harmony, and still slap so hard that you’re left seeing stars. It is so impressive that a track like A Shattered Visage Lies can be such a weighty post-driven and dramatic head banger, and a track like Accelerationist can create a maelstrom of eye-watering, ear-bleeding, and stomach-churning two-step inducing noise. The differences between these tracks are unmistakable, but it’s also unmistakable that we’re listening to Burner and that is what ties everything together.

Completing an album of the year contender is Wish Granter, which has an ending that I think is hardcore heaven and will be black eye territory live. There is My Hands Become Weapons, which has the post reaching epic proportions. Before Agni Kai closes things out in a vibrant and profound way that encapsulates everything great about the album.

Sit back and let a cacophony of gurn-inducing heavy riffs, scathing vocals, hardcore hooks, brutal drumbeats, and gorgeous, heart-wrenching melodies hit you over and over again.

Burner. There was already no-one quite like them, yet with this album they have reached a whole new level that I think will see them reaching a new and broader audience. It’s exciting times and I suggest you jump on the train now; it’s seriously picking up speed.

Burner – No One is Coming to Save Us Track Listing:

1. The Third Revelation
2. What Will You Give? (feat. Josh Middleton)
3. Blood River
4. Sunrise, Parabellum (feat. Matthew K. Heafy)
5. A Shattered Visage Lies
6. Accelerationist
7. The Agony of Peace
8. Wish Granter
9. Kurtz (feat. Anthony Lucero)
10. My Hands Become Weapons
11. Agni Kai

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