*** Boy Sets Fire

IN CHRYSALIS

(Initial Records)

Amid the speed riffing, tempo changes, all-out screaming, and scene-directed isolationism that are hallmarks of hardcore, the Delaware-born quintet Boy Sets Fire are downright expansive, taking emotional and musical risks. Vocalist Nathan Gray tends to break out into sung choruses in a pleasant bray that recalls Mission of Burma, but the band also set themselves apart with their political consciousness. Whereas other hardcore outfits plead at most for scene unity, BSF aren't afraid to address their political concerns to the world at large and to speechify to their peers about the inevitability of that world's impinging on the security of local-bred scenes. "They don't even have to kick down our doors/We let them in with a smile and a thank-you," barks Gray. They accompany each printed song lyric with their own commentary, and they end this tasty five-song EP with the Dead Kennedys' "Holiday in Cambodia" ("We are sick and tired of the stupid separation of hardcore/punk," the band note). It doesn't hurt that the drums and guitars kick.

-- Carrie Baris