This little booger slipped through my highly efficient, organizational skills and structured teethofthedivine office space (i.e the pile of CDs and my daughter’s Disney DVDs on my computer desk at home). But a track randomly popped up on my Ipod warranting further investigation..

I’m not going to try and dance smartly around the divisive white elephant in the room here- you can see the label and clearly will know this is Christian metal, so while I’m sure there will still be “Hrumphhh, another Christian metal review, I’m never coming to this site again!” styled comments, I’m forging ahead for the more open minded metal fans and letting them know about this powerful little sub 30 minute released from Indiana’s The Burial.

The track in question that really got my attention was “Demons Never Sleep”, and for a few minutes I though that it might be a track from the new All Shall Perish or The Black Dahlia Murder albums; stern metallic metalcore/deathcore/melodic death metal with balls an sneaky sense of shreddage.  A quick check showed The Burial to be the culprit and hence further listening of this short, sharp album (EP?).

With only eight relatively short songs, The Burial’s Strikefirst debut (they have another release,The Age of Deceit that I might look into) blows by with a purpose, and while admittedly “Demons Never Sleep” is in fact the albums standout, the other 5 tracks (plus one intro and one interlude), are pretty enjoyable, high octane metal as well. “Reconciliation”,  “Delegation Of The Seven Plagues”, “Monolith” and “Death Conquered” are all pretty blistering, tight, no nonsense metal tracks  with only “Valley of Decision” falling into more cliched typical Christian introspection.

And as much as I enjoy Facedown/ Strikefirst’s roster or more progressive Christian bands like Becoming the Archetype, The Burial add a nice little injection of direct no nonsense metal to the usually predictable atmospheric laden affair. And frankly, as with me when you are listening to it blindly, you’d be hard pressed to identify it as Christian metal band, and that’s a sure sign of metallic success.

 

[Visit the band's website]

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