Evergreen Terrace

Item: Burned Alive By Time
Author: Kriss Stress

Burned Alive By Time

(2002)

Reviewed by Kriss Stress

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Label Eulogy RecordingsDecapolisApril 2003

hardcore metalcore

Being pleasantly surprised is one thing. Being bludgeoned constantly and unrelentingly is another thing altogether! Granted, there have been some hardcore records that have surprised me before with the occasional twist. Most recently, Where Fear and Weapons Meet's new EP "Control" with its sing along choruses and fast paced guitars ala Stretch Arm Strong surprised me greatly and pleased me to no end with its excellence. But I'm not really writing this review on Where Fear and Weapons Meet am I?

"Burned Alive By Time" (Eulogy Records) by Jacksonville, Florida's Evergreen Terrace on the other hand did proceed to bludgeon me. The attack begins with "Understanding The Fear That Lies Within" and doesn't stop for the duration of the record's 31 short minutes. Breakdowns everywhere! I'm a latecomer in the game seeing as how this is the first output that I've heard from them. I've always heard of them, if for nothing else because the band features one of the members from an old punk band called Lugnut that has been deceased for quite some time at this point. I was expecting heaviness, but I wasn't expecting this.

Evergreen Terrace plays hardcore music ala Falling Cycle (during their better moments) and Indecision. The band's satirical humour is also evident in "Dear Live Journal," an ear pummeling nosebleed of a song that pokes fun at people who get online and whine about their sadly pathetic lives for the sake of attention (hey, we've all been there!) while the title track starts out with a programmed drum beat before dropping into a breakdown induced hell fest of raging guitars and drumming. "Funeral Grade Flowers" opens silently with clean guitar chording and cymbals that sound like falling clan destines before the song explodes into mass chaos. The viciousness of "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em" is the closest thing to hardcore salvation as one can get with its endless barrage of riffing and breakdowns. When one breakdown stops and silence overtakes, it's instantly shattered by an even deeper and grittier breakdown. Nice.

If for nothing else than the fact that this record has helped renew my faith in great heavy music (amidst a sea of Zao ripoffs and black metal cheese balls), this record is excellent from start to finish. After listening to it, one can't help but feel a sense of exhilaration paralleled only by the excitement of escaping a burning building alive and having the scars to prove that they've survived it.

B+