Live Review: Burner – Birmingham

Live Review: Burner – The Flapper, Birmingham

29th October 2026
Support: Beyond Extinction, Broken Lungs
Words: Matt Noble
Photos: Tim Finch

Local hardcore noisemakers Broken Lungs kick off the live shenanigans at the Flapper with impassioned energy. Their jagged, dissonant grooves – with a hint of math influence – go down well, while the guitarist, bassist and lead vocalist all leap around the stage to make a strong visual impression. The vocalist goes in and out of the crowd, even jumping on the bar in the gig room at one point, firing up the audience who receptively nod away. He has a vicious vocal snarl, while the whole band are watertight behind him, their drummer notably showing off some serious chops. It’s relatively early on a weeknight, but they earn a respectable audience and surely a few new admirers.

Essex’s Beyond Extinction follow with an extremely downtuned and somewhat apocalyptic take on deathcore/modern death metal. Using a backing track effectively to create a fuller, more professional sound, you can feel the sub-bass drops in your chest and the ambience subtly adds another dimension to the sound. I’m not always a fan of backing tracks, but Beyond Extinction utilise them well. Otherwise, their slow, low and dumb riffs are punishingly extreme.

Their crushing, chugging grooves and disgustingly guttural vocals are performed with such confidence and self-assurance, that they have the air of future headliners on bigger stages. Riding the wave of the release of the ‘Three Swords’ EP, less than a week old at the time of this gig, you wonder where it might take them by the end of the cycle. But for tonight, Beyond Extinction deliver a lesson in the power of grim brutality with the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the cranium. Gnarly stuff.

Finally, tonight’s main attraction Burner deliver a superb headline set. They boast a diverse sound, but the intensity of the hardcore, death metal and blackened influences ties it all together. Burner are a frantic live act, with an inherent, dissonant rage at the core of the music. They mix simplicity with technical riffs, keeping a relentlessly heavy core while being unafraid to vary up their sound.

Ultimately, the proof is in the crowd response. They are engaged throughout, hanging onto every last socially charged lyric that Harry Nott spits out into the mic. The hardcore blast of ‘Accelerationist’ earns a great response, and the technical ‘Kurtz’, from the recently released ‘No One Is Coming To Save Us’ record, sees a pit break out near the front. You see with every breakdown that the room moves and gives back to the band.

They perform like a well-oiled machine, and it shows that they are in full flow, midway through their headline tour. Each member of the band plays a blinder on their instrument, and Nott’s powerful vocals cut through sharply. Burner could be one of the brightest sparks in UK extreme metal for a good while to come at this rate.

Photo credits: Tim Finch

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.