| Not too many so-called hardcore bands
have the capacity to turn angst into action, but Boy Sets Fire is the exception to the
rule. With their fourth album, After the Eulogy, the band mixes emotive and
politically-aware lyrics with raw punk and melodic hardcore music.
Singer Nathan Gray is a powerhouse of emotion who sometimes sings, sometimes screams his
lyrics. “I want to find the water that will wash this whole slate clean,”
he says in “Still Waiting For the Punchline,” as though the problems of the
world were on his shoulders. Other songs feature typically finger-pointing social and
political commentary covering subjects ranging from presidential elections to gay-bashing.
The music is well-developed and dynamic, an appropriate backdrop for the poetic bloodshed
of the verse. In keeping with the band’s tradition of heightening the awareness
of its audience, the sleeve directs its listeners to a number of websites including Free
Mumia Abu-Jamal and Communist Party USA. Boy Sets Fire is one band whose musical
development is about as keen as their sharp minds. Refreshing.
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