"Burning Flag are a Hardcore Punk band that wrote their own homework syllabus and I doubt any specific school could hold them. This vibrant and varied ‘core is headed by Holly’s vocal urgency that cleverly stays within walking distance of contemporary screams, with a wayfinding set of jabbing, and brilliant backing injections standing between. This continues into ‘Ghost Skin’ where the band fall into a brooding and cycling discordant mass of Post-Hardcore Punk in a standout point on Matador. Punk and Hardcore do not need to prove their ubiquitous rage through tenacious tempo all the time you know. Given its lyrical approach, this again stand-out number chose its soundtrack well."
"Where metal meets punk, with pounding drums and anarcho attitude. They’ve listened to rule number one of punk: hit the drums hard. Downtuned guitars with the odd minor chord ooze heaviness with the metally tone providing a satisfying elastic twang from single strings here and there. Combined with the crushing bass sound, at times the music is dark enough to sound subterranean. There are brief moments where they have a more atmospheric feel with a hint of Killing Joke and the death rock sound. Whilst they start off at breakneck speed, Burning Flag don’t rely on this gimmick, using heaviness and good driving riffs to power the album along.
New addition Holly, formerly of Kiss Me Killer, has a strong voice which you’d need to power through the mix. Whilst mostly their style follows the strained shouting hardcore pattern she sometimes actually sings. This gives Burning Flag some variety to make them stand out from the crowd of crusty doomy political punk bands. Backing vocals punctuate the odd song here and there to good effect."
Just as good, if not better is how Matador answers the question. The atmospheric intro almost sounds as if it could come from a King Diamond album (I’m a fan, I admit it) but leads straight into Thrown Out, a powerful blast of old school Burning Flag complete with hardcore shout-alongs and stunning guitar work. Man Up continues in the same vein as hardcore punk and metallic melody collide once again providing an infectious vehicle for the band’s intelligent social political lyrics.
There are even touches of Discharge in the mix, but addictive riffs and choruses are the glue that hold the band together. Ghost Skin grooves wonderfully against the police as one of the ten tracks of perfect punk. I make no bones of the fact that Burning Flag are one of my favourite bands right now and this new album just helps to reinforce that view. Even the cover art is stunning. There isn’t a single filler here as all songs deliver leaving listeners breathless and wanting more – exactly how a record should leave you feeling. You may have already heard Eat the Rich and Vendetta is as ferocious as its name suggests. Penultimate number Step Back has a fantastic vocal delivery resulting in a powerfully catchy tune to compliment the serious lyrical content – probably my favourite track on the album. It’s definitely the best release so far in 2021 and it’ll be really hard to beat."
"What I love about Burning Flag is, it's their wide range of influences gives them their unique sound I hear elements of Guitar Noise, Industrial, Metal, Punk & Hardcore in their sound but they blend this in such a way that you can't mistake this band for anyone else! There's huge riffs aplenty and they are of the kind that makes you want to repeatedly smash your head into the wall with glee! There are no highlights to this album simply because to have highlights there has to be songs that are weaker than the rest and there aren't any! Every song is absolute as good as the one preceding it and the one after but for the sake of the review a few things did stand out like Single "Eat The Rich" a classic Burning Flag riff with it's stop start chuggery it's gonna down a storm when they get back out playing live! And the destroying, discordant VoiVod-esque riffing in "Vendetta" tempered with a SWANS like pounding mid section really blew me away! Good ideas are plentiful here amongst the business as usual Burning Flag Arse Kicking and I found that the whole album kept my attention and engaged me completely! The real surprise here for me was closing track "All The While" clocking in at near double the length of the rest of the album tracks this is one unholy bastardization of Killing Joke at their heaviest Rollins Band at their nastiest before breaking into an extended heavy chuigging riff that would probably make Slayer cry!"