Heart Of Darkness
Burnt By The Sun
Heart Of Darkness is the third and final full-length album by New Jersey metalcore/grindcore band Burnt By The Sun, originally released by Relapse Records in August 2009 and reissued on vinyl in June 2026. Clocking in at around 34 minutes across ten tightly constructed tracks, it reunites the classic lineup—vocalist Mike Olender, guitarist John Adubato, bassist Ted Patterson, and drummer Dave Witte—after a multi-year hiatus, and was conceived as a farewell statement that distilled the best elements of their earlier work into one concentrated blast. Songs such as Inner Station, Cardiff Giant, F‑Unit, A Party to the Unsound, There Will Be Blood, Goliath, Beacon, The Great American Dream Machine, Rust – Future Primitive, and The Wolves Are Running offer a blend of metalcore, deathcore, and grindcore, with lyrics that channel Olender’s morally charged critiques of American complacency and political decay.
Musically, Heart Of Darkness is often praised as both the band’s heaviest record and their most memorable, combining beautiful, melancholic and dark riffing with streamlined off-rhythm percussion, intricate yet brutally effective grooves, and a production that balances distortion with clarity. Reviewers highlight Adubato’s inventive “rubber-band” guitar work, which packs the songs with clanging, discordant heaviness while retaining odd, catchy melodies, while Witte’s drumming is singled out for keeping the material relentlessly dynamic through deft fills and off-time rhythms that prevent stagnation. Critics at outlets like Exclaim!, Lambgoat, and Last Rites describe the album as a rumbling monolith of steamrolling metalcore that successfully “blends the heaviness of metal with the passion of hardcore,” arguing that if Burnt By The Sun had to go out, Heart Of Darkness shows them doing so on a high note and proving that this often-maligned genre still had real life left in it.
Heart Of Darkness
Burnt By The Sun
Heart Of Darkness is the third and final full-length album by New Jersey metalcore/grindcore band Burnt By The Sun, originally released by Relapse Records in August 2009 and reissued on vinyl in June 2026. Clocking in at around 34 minutes across ten tightly constructed tracks, it reunites the classic lineup—vocalist Mike Olender, guitarist John Adubato, bassist Ted Patterson, and drummer Dave Witte—after a multi-year hiatus, and was conceived as a farewell statement that distilled the best elements of their earlier work into one concentrated blast. Songs such as Inner Station, Cardiff Giant, F‑Unit, A Party to the Unsound, There Will Be Blood, Goliath, Beacon, The Great American Dream Machine, Rust – Future Primitive, and The Wolves Are Running offer a blend of metalcore, deathcore, and grindcore, with lyrics that channel Olender’s morally charged critiques of American complacency and political decay.
Musically, Heart Of Darkness is often praised as both the band’s heaviest record and their most memorable, combining beautiful, melancholic and dark riffing with streamlined off-rhythm percussion, intricate yet brutally effective grooves, and a production that balances distortion with clarity. Reviewers highlight Adubato’s inventive “rubber-band” guitar work, which packs the songs with clanging, discordant heaviness while retaining odd, catchy melodies, while Witte’s drumming is singled out for keeping the material relentlessly dynamic through deft fills and off-time rhythms that prevent stagnation. Critics at outlets like Exclaim!, Lambgoat, and Last Rites describe the album as a rumbling monolith of steamrolling metalcore that successfully “blends the heaviness of metal with the passion of hardcore,” arguing that if Burnt By The Sun had to go out, Heart Of Darkness shows them doing so on a high note and proving that this often-maligned genre still had real life left in it.