Art of Burning Water

Art of Burning Water

Art of Burning Water are a UK group formed in West London in 2001, emerging from Hanwell and Hammersmith. Their music is associated with sludge, noisecore, mathcore, sludge metal and noise, and they build a dense, abrasive style around themes of suburban alienation and outsider isolation.

Sound and influences

The group describe a sound that sits between punk, metal and noise, and they are positioned as being too punk for metallers, too noisy for art-rock listeners and too unusual for wider taste. Their music draws on the prime noise-rock of Zeni Geva and Godflesh, the rhythmical riff structures of the Melvins, Keelhaul and mid-period Voivod, and the blunt force of Slayer filtered through sludge. They also keep to a broad punk ethos in which “anything goes” and style restrictions are rejected.

Activity and recordings

Art of Burning Water continue to operate despite personal injury and chronic disorganisation, with emphasis placed on making sound rather than self-promotion. Their album Love You Dead uses a more spontaneous writing approach, and This Disgrace continues that direction. That record also includes emotionally heavy dirge sections compared with Children of God-era Swans, the What’s This For? period of Killing Joke, and the Souls at Zero intensity of Neurosis.