New HC Bands

New Hardcore Band Spotlight: Left to Burn

Band: Left to Burn
From: Central Pennsylvania


Their formation story:
(Chris Smith, drums): "Having grown up in Altoona, a fairly small railroad/mountain town. We've all known each other for ~20 years. Myself, Shane, and Mike have all been making music together for nearly 15 years. We were in a death metal band, which disbanded prematurely.

"After a while, we decided to start a new band and get back to making just straight hardcore. We grew up going to and playing hardcore shows in Central Pennsylvania so we wanted to get back to what we grew up around. We wrote a few songs before bringing in my cousin Tyler to play bass to round out the lineup."

Their sound in their own words:
"Fast, dark, dreary ,and aggressive. I think it reflects the area we grew up surrounded by, here in Central Pennsylvania. Some influence from bands like Cursed, Converge, Pulling Teeth, Majority Rule, and also some bands like Foundation, Backtrack, and Cruel Hand.

"We wanted to keep it pretty straight forward hardcore, and keep it genuine to the sounds we grew up loving and hearing in our area."

Latest release info:
"Gnaw & Bite is our first release. We picked a hand full of songs that seemed to round out our overall sound pretty well. We wanted to do a little more than just release a demo with 2-3 songs it. A lot of work went into writing and recording, it's always slightly stressful to put out that first 'something' so we really took our time getting it together and working the kinks out.

"We tracked everything in our 10x15" storage unit where we practice—a tiny room with metal walls and a concrete floor. Maybe the least-ideal environment to record, but it lent itself to our sound perfectly. Cold and damp; harsh & brash. We wanted the record to sound how we sound. It's always a bummer to hear a record and then see the band and it sounds completely different."

Future plans:
"For now, we're just keeping it moving. We just finished recording 4 more songs.. another 11 or 12 minutes of music. We are hoping to have that out in the near future, along with a video and some physical copies. Other than that just looking to play shows anywhere we can."

What other bands from the region should we check out?
"Check out our Clearfield family in Brace for Impact and Assault On 5th. Cemented In Fear, rippers Concealed Blade from Pittsburgh, they've got a new record coming out. Path of the Flood out of Johnstown just called it quits but check them out too, real good stuff."

Left to Burn on social media: Instagram

Tagged: left to burn