Burning Image was a bit of an anomaly in the punk pantheon of the '80s. At the time, hardcore punk was the rage but was becoming formulaic and dumbed down as quickly as the songs were getting faster and shorter. These four guys from Bakersfield, CA, home of
Buck Owens and
Merle Haggard, had more in common with the English "batcave" bands of the period like
the Specimen than any hardcore unit. Their goth sound, mixed with a heavy dose of theatrical sensibilities, caught the attention of
Jello Biafra, who quickly championed the band as one of his favorites, and he was instrumental in getting
Burning Image to open numerous times for
the Dead Kennedys. For those who missed the band the first time around, these tracks gather the whole of
Burning Image's early unreleased demos: a whole album's worth of songs from the sessions for the rare single "The Final Conflict" b/w "Burning Image, Burning" (along with the single itself, of course). Three tracks -- "Gargoyles," "Anytime, Anywhere," and "Temptation" -- were recorded in July 2003 and contain the same spark as the material recorded 15 years earlier. ~ Al Campbell