Band: First to Burn
From: Little Rock, Arkansas
Their formation story:
(Chase Turner, vocals): "Tommy (guitar) and I have played music together for the past 15 years, the last 10 of which have been playing in Terminal Nation. As much as I enjoy playing hardcore-adjacent death metal, I’ve always been rooted in hardcore. As the Arkansas scene has continued to grow, it’s created a need for more bands to be able to facilitate the growth, so Tommy, Zach (drums), and I said let’s see if we can get something going.
"We started writing and after the first couple of songs we asked Jake (bass) if he wanted to play, he was already playing in a badass band called Open Kasket, he dug the music written so far and wanted to be apart of it. Justin (guitar) was a mutual friend through Zach and asked him and he was into it."
Their sound in their own words:
"I hate answering this question because I feel like it’s always a stretch, but I would say Hatebreed, Neglect, Foundation meets Jesus Piece and Vein.fm. We wanted to play aggressive hardcore, but everyone in the band are phenomenal musicians and wanted that to shine through. I personally feel like we found a good balance between heavy and technical."
Latest release info:
"The EP is called Last to Fall, and it was recorded with Jason Tedford at Wolfman Studios, mixed by Taylor Young at The Pit and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege.
"The EP touches on a lot of emotional struggle and the strength to get past that. I was in a very bad wreck last October and really struggled with morality after surviving a wreck that should have killed me. I was in a dark place throughout the healing process and started writing to help me through some of the emotions I was feeling at the time. Most of the lyrical content is rooted around those same or similar feelings.
"We have a change of pace towards the end with 'Funeral De Rosa,' that song is a straight call out towards an abuser and predator locally and speaks towards not only him being a shitty person, but also toward the people that look the other way and continue to allow it to happen."
Future plans:
"We are all busy individuals with work, family, and existing bands some of us are in, with that being said we are going to be playing locally and doing the weekend warrior approach for awhile, hitting the surrounding states and wherever else wants us to play."
What other bands from their region should we check out?
"Terminal Nation, Open Kasket, The Chores, Morbid Visionz, Zashed, Mazenko, Death Rattle, DryerFire, Held Tight, Pett, Stressor.
"The list can go on and on, Arkansas is putting out great music right now and is a force to be reckoned with."
Hit the First to Burn Linktree to find all of their social media pages.
2024 Hardcore Releases playlist
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