365 Days of Metal: Say Hello to My Little Friend

Day 103

Upon a Burning Body - The World is Ours

Band Origin:  San Antonio, Texas, USA
Genre: Deathcore
Label: Sumerian Records
Running Time: 33 minutes 
Release Date: April 6, 2010

Best Part: CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!

Favorite Tracks: Intermission, Scarface, Carlito's Way, City Hall and Heat

Grade: 4.0

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The World is Ours in way more than 20 words or less: 

Upon a Burning Body's debut album is the first gangster inspired, dedication to the film career of Al Pacino put into ground crushing audio format, and it's damned fine dedication.

The Band: 

Upon a Burning Body is a five member deathcore band from San Antonio who have a flair for the gangster life, which permeates both their music and their image. Often sporting high class attire during their live performances as 'The Family', whether it be dress pants, dress shirts and black suspenders, or tuxedo vests the band carry themselves with a necessary amount of swagger. And their debut album which is almost a dedication to Al Pacino as each track carries the names of and are lyrically inspired by films straight from his credit reel. The band was signed to Sumerian Records after spending a number of years shaking the foundation of the San Antonio underground and are in the process of working on their second album.

Jay's Take on The World is Ours: 

Deathcore often gets relegated to being identified as the red headed step child among metal subgenres, as its primarily seen as following a format involving near incomprehensible guttural vocals, death metal style pace, massive down tuning and chugg-a-lug-chug-chug-chugga-lugness. And while that description may be a bit exaggerated or fair, depending on your stance, Upon a Burning Body have managed to change certain narrow focused perspectives on the genre. A first look at the band themselves and then the theme of their album and music may open the mindset that these guys are just another group of tryhards with a gimmick but that thought falls flat once you get down to the brass tacks: the music. The World is Ours is a deathcore album that moves outside of the established mold, which is to say the lack of a mold, as deathcore albums often follow no relevant type of structure. This album on the other hand is comprised of all the necessities that a deathcore album should bring to the table and carries along the kitchen sink. Beyond the trademark earth shaking breakdowns you get treated some really great technical guitar work and solos, superb percussion work tethering the instrumental pieces of the set together, and some well placed gang shouts such as all throughout Intermission which makes me want to call it Partycore - but I won't. The album is only 33 minutes long, with tracks ranging in the neighborhood of 3 minutes, except for the closing track City Hall which is kind of the odd man out on this record, but not in a negative way. It's definitely the cleanest and more interesting track on the record.

Sample of the Day:





- J