Burn It Down's Let The Dead Bury The Dead received 4 "K"s in Britain's Kerrang! and was hailed with a 4/5 review in Alternative Press upon its release in September, 2000. Although far from a commercial success even by underground standards, the album is viewed as a landmark release by a number of musicians, like Killswitch Engage singer Howard Jones, members of In Flames, Bleeding Through, Throwdown, God Forbid, Soilent Green, Demon Hunter, Eighteen Visions and more.
Let The Dead Bury The Dead, which followed a handful of EP releases dating back to a four song 7" released in 1997 on the Uprising label, would prove to be the band's solitary full-length effort. The group broke up while on tour with In Flames, Nevermore and Shadows Fall in November, 2000.
This followed nearly four years of touring the Northeast, South and Midwest with bands like Zao, Dillinger Escape Plan, Cave In, Living Sacrifice, Earth Crisis, Stretch Arm Strong and Isis, and one-off shows supporting Metallica, AFI (at Krazy Fest Too), Hatebreed, Misfits, Morbid Angel, Six Feet Under & more.
Burn It Down's story begins in 1997. When Todd Guillion, bass player for Indianapolis "power-violence" monsters Ice Nine, announced to his band that he intended to move to California, they chose to disband. However, drummer Scoth and guitarist John Zeps were eager to make use of the remaining handful of months that Todd would be around, so they recruited their friend Ryan Downey (who worked for Zeps at Tracks Records) to sing for a new project.
Armed with a left-over Ice Nine track, three originals and a cover of seminal California hardcore band Inside Out's "No Spiritual Surrender," the four men played two shows (one supporting Coalesce) at the Sitcom on Indianapolis' Northside before deciding on a name. Before Todd moved away to the Bay Area (where he would eventually form Time In Malta) and Scoth went traveling through Europe, the band managed to record their four songs (and the cover tune) at a local studio.
Downey's old friend Sean "Vegan Reich" Muttaqi, owner of Uprising Records (who would later issue the first album from Fall Out Boy), had come up with the name Burn It Down and later offered to release the demo recording (minus the cover) as a 7" single and CD EP. Graphic artist Brad Trost (Chamberlain, Split Lip) put together the artwork.
Inspired to move forward, Downey and Zeps agreed to continue the band. After some brief discussion of hiring the ex-drummer for local rap-rock band Birdmen Of Alcatraz, Downey went searching for an old friend from high school, Brian "Bob" Fouts (formerly of Dead Dizney and With Authority), whom he believed to be the greatest drummer he had ever known. Bob agreed to join the band. Harley French, a straight edge kid who had moved to Indiana from Florida and whose old band had covered the Hardball song "One On One," came in on bass. Harley only lasted one show with Burn It Down, but Brian "Bob" Fouts would go on to play every show the band ever performed (minus the original two).
Ex-Ice Nine guitarist Dave Lawson, who at that point worked with Downey at Missing Link Records in Broad Ripple, came in on bass. The band wrote a couple more songs but more or less stuck to the 7" material and local shows with bands like Avail. Jason McCash, whose resume included bands like Birthright and Merrick, replaced Lawson and played his first show with the band supporting Sloppy Seconds, which included a confrontation with neo-Nazi skinheads.
When McCash failed to show up at the band's rehearsal space to complete a weekend of out-of-town shows, the band found themselves on the hunt for a bass player once again. Downey called up his old friend John Johnson, guitar player (alongside Downey) in seminal Indianapolis straight-edge bands Clear Sight and Hardball, who was living in Orange County, California. After hearing the Uprising EP over the telephone (and subsequently declaring enthusiastically that, "This guitar player sounds like he is on crack!"), "Little John" agreed to return to his native Indiana and play bass for Burn It Down.
Johnson's first perfomance with the band was at a hometown show in front of 400 people at the Emerson Theater, bolstered by a bill that included Better Off Dead, Emotion Zero and Upheaval (whose members went on to join Haste The Day and Demiricious) and was the biggest local hardcore show since the heyday of Split Lip.
As the band gained momentum in the Midwest hardcore scene, and established friendships with similar-minded acts like Racetraitor (whose politics Downey shared) and Zao, they became frustrated by Uprising's lack of promotion and distribution. A couple of guys Downey knew at the Relapse label offered to re-issue the Uprising EP as the first release for their new label, Escape Artist, which became home to Isis and Time In Malta.
Rather than simply reissue the EP, the band decided to re-record it. Adding a number of new songs, like the Sepultura/ Machine Head inspired "Kill Their Idols," the Kiss It Goodbye and 108 fusion of "Snakes in the Garden," and the Coalesce worshipping "Full Body Immersion," the band hit the studio with their friend "Metal" Mike Downton (who also sat in on bass for a wisely unreleased cover of Black Sabbath's "Heaven & Hell") to record what would become the Eat, Sleep, Mate, Defend EP.
Escape Artist gave the EP (later released as a 10" on silver and then white vinyl) a real push. It garnered positive reviews in magazines like Metal Maniacs, although it received merely 1 "K" in Kerrang!.
Jason McCash, who had promoted the record release show at the Emerson, came back to Burn It Down when John Johnson returned to California in January, 1999, a full year to the month after he had joined the band. This time, it was permanent. Unfortunately, McCash's reentrance came shortly before Zeps -- whose rehearsal attendance had become irregular and who seemed uninterested in either touring or writing new material -- was fired. It was a tough decision, but one that the remaining three members felt was necessary at the time.
In an (ultimately futile) effort to prove to themselves they could continue the band without its charismatic founding guitarist, the band recorded two songs as a three-piece with McCash playing both guitar and bass: a new track called "Pulling Out the Skeleton" and a cover of 108's "Deathbed," neither of which were ever released. The guys recruited Racetraitor's Dan Binaei to replace Zeps. Burn It Down was written about in The Indianapolis Star, Nuvo and Hit Parader around this time.
Frustrated after a fruitless recording session with Binaei (which included four songs that were intended to be their half of a split with Racetraitor for the Trustkill label), Burn It Down begged Zeps to come back to the band, which thankfully, he did.
Refreshed and renewed, Downey, Zeps, McCash and Fouts wrote three new songs and hit the studio with Tommy Rosa to re-record their half of the Make Them Talk split, released in 1999.
The band also re-recorded the track "Snakes in the Garden," which showed up on a comp.
Even with the renewed friendships and the local friends and fans, the band was still unable to ever embark on a full tour of the US, let alone any international touring. In fact, in four years, Burn It Down never played the Northwest, Southwest, Texas or the West Coast, despite touring in fits and starts for two weeks here, a week there, a weekend somewhere else. The band did play festivals like Krazy Fest, Hellfest and Milwaukee Metalfest.
But despite the drama within the band from time to time, the four guys were able to buckle down and work their butts off to compose what would be their only full length release, a concept album written as a collaborative effort in McCash's basement on the Westside. The band made full use of Zeps' unique and gifted playing, Fouts powerful and skilled drumming, McCash's fluid and exceptionally musical bass work and Downey's increasing interest in delving into the style of his vocal heroes from Glenn Danzig to Billy Idol, and their shared spectrum of influences, from Celtic Frost to Voivod to Metallica, Stone Temple Pilots and Into Another.
The band turned down an offer from Trustkill and interest from Revelation Records and Century Media and decided to fuffill their verbal committment to Escape Artist to deliver at least one album. They entered Red House Studios (now re-christened Black Lodge) in Eudora, Kansas with producer Ed Rose (Get Up Kids, Coalesce), whose guidance helped shape the album. All of the tracks the band had prepared for the release were recorded, including a cover of Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black," with the exception of a song called "If The Spirits Are Killing" intended to close the album that just did not come together in the studio.
Burn It Down was picked up by a national booking agency and added to a week of shows with Earth Crisis and In Flames that fall. The guys in In Flames were so taken with the band that they invited them to join them on their full US tour in November/ December, 2000. Having already passed on potential tours with Glassjaw, The Juliana Theory and Hatebreed due to Zeps' committment to his new record store, the guys (including Zeps) agreed this was an opportunity not to be missed. Terry O'Donnell, a good friend, was recruited to fill in for Zeps on the tour.
The issues within Burn It Down turned out to be too much, however, and the band broke up after a show at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio, when Downey walked out on the tour. In February, 2001, Downey moved to Berkley, California where he briefly rejoined Todd Guillion in Time In Malta, which lasted for merely one show. Burn It Down reformed for a "final" show in July, 2001 at Hellfest in Syracuse, New York.
After the official dissolution of Burn It Down, Downey remained in California where he continued to publish his fanzine, Superhero, and freelance as a journalist for several publications, moving on to a variety of jobs in the television industry (reporting on everything from the war in Iraq to "Kill Bill" to Metallica) and the founding of an artist management company. He also sings for the Misfits tribute band Die, Die My Darling alongside members of Eighteen Visions and Bleeding Through and the band Night Of The Scarecrow alongside members of Bleeding Through.
Jason McCash co-founded The Dream Is Dead, who have released material with Escape Artist. Since leaving that band, McCash has become even more active in the doom scene, promoting shows and festivals, putting out records, and playing bass for The Gates Of Slumber, the band founded by onetime Burn It Down tour manager and close friend Karl Simon.
Brian "Bob" Fouts lives and works in Indianapolis and has played drums for About The Fire, Amongst The Swarm and now alongside McCash in The Gates Of Slumber.
John Zeps continues to own and operate Vibes Music in Indianapolis and to write, perform and record with a wide number of bands, including Amongst The Swarm (together with Fouts). The newly reunited Lemonheads have rehearsed at his house.
Downey, Fouts, Zeps and McCash reunited once more in July, 2005 to perform at the Midwest Music Summit in Indianapolis. There are no further reunion shows planned.
