Blue 42: Revisiting Haste The Day’s metalcore debut album, ‘Burning Bridges’

Cycle back to the early 2000’s, and you’ll find a completely different music scene thriving. With Myspace being a brand new thing, Facebook being a pipe dream, and album sales still going (somewhat) strong, the burgeoning metalcore scene wasn’t as saturated as it is today. Trustkill, Ferret, and other record labels were putting out some of the freshest metalcore and post-hardcore albums you could imagine, and what’s interesting is most of them are incredibly important today. Without Eighteen Visions, there’s likely no Motionless In White or Asking Alexandria, etc. You can add Haste The Day to the list of early-2000’s metalcore bands who were influential as well.

Bands like Underoath hadn’t come close to reaching their peak yet, Demon Hunter was starting to see success, and Zao was, well, being Zao (2004’s The Funeral Of God is a stone cold classic). Then you have a band like Haste The Day, who always made quality, diverse albums – 2015’s epitaph Coward can be argued as their best, but there’s also 2005’s When Everything Falls, 2007’s Pressure The Hinges, and then there’s their 2004 debut record Burning Bridges. Career-defining tracks like “Blue 42” and “American Love” made this a killer debut album, as their self-described “rock and roll with breakdowns” caught on rather quickly. A definite fan favorite album, it was part of the “wave” of mid-2000’s bands that truly defined the genre. And though their later albums would expand on their core sound, experiment with more melody and other genres, and even change vocalists, it all came full circle on 2015’s Coward, featuring an array of sounds that essentially covered their entire decade plus career. If you like breakdowns and shredding riffs that never go out of style, this album is the place to be.

Everyone has to start somewhere, though. Haste The Day’s core sound on Burning Bridges surely inspired many of the wave of current bands, like August Burns Red, The Word Alive, The Devil Wears Prada, and many more. It also encouraged similar bands to up their game – or get left behind. It remains a highly influential album, and for a debut, it’s very strong. Listen to it below, and rediscover Burning Bridges.