When all was said and done, after sixteen months of writing and recording, hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment, and countless sleepless nights, the band was bought out of their deal. Freedom, finally. A future in legitimate musicdom. But there are no guarantees in this business, as they quickly found out. While the first single "Hollow Again" was reacting at radio, the record was not receiving competitive marketing attention from the label. The record business was reaching a state of crisis with declining record sales in late 2002, and very little effort was being shown toward developing acts. The band parted ways with their management company and both record labels in a strange twist of events in early 2003. Truthless Heroes had sold 70,000 copies in nine months. Most bands would have hung it up in the wake of drama, disappointment, and disaster at this point. No record deal. No manager. No back catalogue. No support. But Project 86 would prove their mettle (and metal?) in the end.

Isolation refined them. Thoughts of writing again resurfaced, this time with a new maturity and resiliency. The anger and frustration at the folly of the music industry was focused into sound with a reborn tenacity. Songs came together faster than ever before, after cutting the cords that bound them. The band collaborated once again with producer Matt Hyde and wrote a brand new record, less than one year after Truthless Heroes had been released. With nothing to cling to but the music it all flowed naturally and poignantly. The band spent a total of two weeks writing, eight days tracking, and four days mixing their most ambitious endeavor to date, Songs To Burn Your Bridges By. Somehow along the way they became veterans who had somehow retained a youthful approach to emotion. Schwab's lyrics are even more disconnected and disparaging on the new record, with clever stabs at all those who had opposed him in the past, including himself. Songs to Burn Your Bridges By flies in the face of everything that corrupts honesty and integrity, both in music and relationship. One is left with a devastating power and discord that celebrates the death of unhealthy relationships, both professional and personal. The dense sound is reminiscent of post-Refused progressive hardcore, with a touch of Marilyn Manson, Sick of it All, and Misfits. They also manage to bring it down in several hallowingly haunting tracks which speak subtly of Soundgarden and even the Pixies.

In songs such as "The Great Golden Gate Disaster" Schwab proclaims, "I used to want to change the world in brotherhood, us two. But now, my friend, I only want to save it...from you." The frontman encapsulates a self-depricating, depraved, screaming vocal style and mixes small hints of spoken melody that consistently communicates his emotion with a level of sincerity that few can manage. Randeath highlights the droning riffs with tasteful psuedo-leads, as Dail and The Hatchet merge as one, in dense rhythm and force. This album is not just a bitter backlash, though. Project has somehow shed any inhibition about themselves, spiritual, sonic, or otherwise, to put forth a sense of hope when all seems lost. In the song "Safe Haven," the frontman pleads, "Just crawl across this desert heat and become tragic with me. And now that we are not alone you know that we could never be." By the end of the of the record you are cheering along with them as they rant phrases such as, "Fight, fight, for our tomorrow...fall to stand, surrender to follow." Project 86 seems to have finally found themselves in the midst of trial, alone and just fine, without which their would be no fuel for their burning bridges. And here is their proof, in the form of ten beautifully destructive tracks, that fire can both refine and purge. This truly is a record for anyone who wants to set fire to their past and move forward to a hope-filled future.