BREADWINNER — The Burner (review)

Boxset / Compilation · 1994 · Progressive Metal

4/5 · 2018-01-01
siLLy puPPy

Progressive sludge grunge in full nerdy regalia. BREADWINNER were a short-lived math rock meets alternative metal ( = math metal ) band that formed in Richmond, VA in 1990 and lasted a mere two years leaving very few historical artifacts in their wake. However, despite the scarcity of product, the trio of Pen Rollings on guitar, Robert Donne on bass and Chris Farmer on drums have been cited as one of the very first early bands to fall under the genre category of math rock that took the sounds of noise rock and post-hardcore and married them with complex time signature deviations usually reserved for jazz and progressive rock and taking it even further into more abrasive and alienating arenas.

The compilation BURNER is a mere EP in length release that only hits the 20 minute and 23 second mark but nevertheless compiles the complete catalogue of the band’s output including their one EP “Supplementary Cig” as well as the two singles “Tourette’s” and the untitled track that usually is simply written as “ “. Each single acts effectively as three track EPs with some tracks appearing twice. This compilation BURNER also includes three unreleased tracks which constitutes the band’s entire musical output which appeared on Merge Records which would go on to become more famous for breaking more known indie rock artists such as Squirrel Nut Zippers, Lambchop, Neutral Milk Hotel and Arcade Fire.

Despite the misleading album cover that brings collages of indie pop electronica albums to mind such as Stereolab, the music is characterized by heavily distorted guitars and bass with fairly robotic and precision timed drumming that follows the same style as heard in sludge metal bands. Labeled as math rock but BREADWINNER existed before the term did, the jittery time signature attacks are wrapped up in thrashy metal riffs, doom laden grooves with post-punk artistic guitar counterpoints while the tracks exist somewhere between the monotonous stream of post-rock, the technical time signature frenzies of math rock and the extreme caustic bombast of extreme metal with heavy crushing distorted guitars turned up to maximum decibelage.

The music is entirely instrumental and the band has been cited as an influence for Battles and Lamb Of God but this sort of post-hardcore / metal fusion seemed to be quite popular with bands in the 90s and i can hear aspects of BREADWINNER that also could have possibly influenced many bands ranging from Thought Industry to even Tool. While the metal scene of the day was dominated by glam metal as well as the nascent extreme metal of thrash, death and doom, BREADWINNER was in a world of their own that offered glimpses into the mainstream culture without adhering to the paradigms that had been codified into orthodoxy. Highly precise without existing in the world of guitar shredders, BREADWINNER somehow drifted into a new technical realm of the extreme noise rock meets metal universe and in the process laid down the grounds for other bands to build upon.