Nicolas Cage Fighter - I Watched You Burn (Album Review)

Nicolas Cage Fighter - I Watched You Burn
‍Released: September 12, 2025

Lineup

Nick Moriarty // Vocals
Justin Ellis // Guitars
Matt Davenport // Drums
Connor McMillan // Bass

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The band with the best name in the world are back with their sophomore offering. Nicolas Cage Fighter caught the attention of their namesake, but I Watched You Burn is set to turn even more heads. Whilst not a full concept album, there’s a pretty clear theme of worldwide degradation and the impact a collapsing world has on humanity. 

Kicking off with the title track, ‘I Watched You Burn’, the band are on absolute fire. It’s a gloomy world view for sure, complemented by the unrelenting brutality combining death metal savagery with hardcore hooks. They most shun hardcore runtimes though, with ‘Valley of Agony’ clicking over four minutes and never wasting a second. If it’s not the  “hear no evil…” chorus, it’s Matt Davenport’s double kicks and a full minute breakdown at the end. It’s chest beating stuff that reflects the violent world we live in. 

Compared to their debut, this record has a better balance across and between songs. While The Bones That Grew From Pain was a constant battering ram, I Watched You Burn is cognisant that tempo changes carry enormous power. ‘Godforsaken Silence’ moves from blast beats to doom riffs and breakdowns. ‘The Executioner’ has an industrial level commitment to staccato kicks and guitars before more blast beats and Nick Moriarty pushing himself to black metal shrieks. It's an absolute jam that will light up mosh pits. ‘Tempest’ kicks off with thrash, making it hard to pigeon hole guitarist Justin Ellis within one style. 

The blackened approach seeps throughout the remainder of the LP. ‘Garden of the Grieving Mother’ benefits from Moriarty double tracking some vocal lines, though halfway through it is firmly in the hardcore realm. The juxtaposition of blast beats and breakdowns on ‘Legacies of Dust’ indicates a desire to embrace different levels of heaviness to suit the apocalyptic lyrics. The controlled aggression of their tempo changes meaning songs like ‘Death in Bloom’ and ‘Existing Beyond Death’ are tight deathcore compositions that sound a bit same-same. ‘Tarnished Remains’ though has another gear and is a rattling beast of a song that closes the record on a high. 

It’s dense and unfriendly, not dissimilar from Thy Art Is Muder’s Godlike album. That’s both a compliment and a warning, since that album is fantastic, but Nicolas Cage Fighter has a lot going for them and would be best to carve their own path rather than get lost in an overpopulated deathcore scene. I Watched You Burn is on the right trajectory pushing past the raw brutality of their debut and showcasing an ability to control their songwriting to cause the utmost destruction.

Catch them on tour and appearing at Froth & Fury Festival in Perth!

Rating: 8.5/10
‍I Watched You Burn is out September 12th. Pre-order/save here
‍Words by KJ Draven @kjdraven