Band: The Burial
Record: Lights and Perfections (Pre-Order)
Label: Facedown Records
Release: March 27th, 2012
Reviewer: BrodyB
- Lights
- Apathy and Petition
- Pearls; The Frailty of Matter
- Salt and Wrath
- Seed
- Wisdom; The Gateway of Liberty
- Sight and Sensation
- Shackles and Ember
- Perfections
South Bend, Indiana’s The Burial is a band that has moved from label to label over the past few years, finding places to release records with Sancrosanct Records and Strike First Records. However as of March 27th, The Burial is set to release a pummeling onslaught of metal from their new home, Facedown Records.
Lights and Perfections starts off with “Lights“. The Burial erase any doubt listeners may have about their musical capabilities after only about thirty seconds after the track starts. Leads abound and run rampant among walloping drum beats and warm, growling bass lines. New vocalist Elisha Mullins makes a strong first impression as he displays incredibly harsh and quickly delivered vocals that sound fairly reminiscent of Josh Ditto from label mates Hope For the Dying. The band really flex their musical muscles in “Apathy and Petition” as axe men Todd Hatfield and Elisha Mullins absolutely decimate their fretboards with incredibly intricate riff work and multiple blazing solos. “Pearls; The Frailty of Matter”, was the first song The Burial unleashed upon fans before the release of Lights and Perfections and is among the cream of the crop on the record. The whole band is on top of their game as tempo changes are made left and right with ease. As impressive as the electric guitars are on this particular track, what stands out the most to me as more of a rhythm guy myself is the bass and drums. Kaleb Luebchow annihilates his drum kit with furious blast beats and double bass while Jake Neece breaks out from the background around the 2:50 mark to provide some great riffing himself. “Sight and Sensation” is perhaps my favorite track off the whole album. The first quarter of the song is pretty straightforward, groovy riffing until things get toned down a bit with a great acoustic and light electric section that explodes into a section more melodic and intense than before. The breakdown around the three minute mark, while short, is most definitely sweet.
Lights and Perfections nails it in many ways, yet there are few things I felt could be improved on. I wished the album would have been a little longer. While I appreciate that nine fairly short songs is a lot easier to digest and appreciate than most progressive bands, I felt that one more, longer song would have rounded out the album a little better. Even if it was just an instrumental, I feel that The Burial has enough musical talent they could have made it interesting. I also found myself hoping the slower, more progressive sections in songs like “Shackles and Ember”, and “Sight and Sensation” would have progressed a little further and explored a little more ground because I found those surprising toned down moments to be some of my favorite on the record.
Overall: The Burial have found a great family in Facedown Records and have a bright future ahead of them. With the talent they have acquired already, there is nowhere to go but upwards from here. While Lights and Perfections is not a perfect record it is a thoroughly enjoyable progressive metal record that is easier to listen to than most other counterparts. For fans of: Hope for the Dying and Becoming the Archetype