Hang tight, there is something wrong with the earth’s gravitational pull.  Holy schnikes is this heavy!  Buried’s Oculus Rot has been in my daily rotation for the last few weeks and I am excited to go over how awesome this album is.  First, Buried features Joel Sta and Robbe V (Ex Pyaemia).   I was excited when I read about this as Cerebral Cereal is an underground classic.

Buried, however, does not sound anything like Pyaemia.  Kicking things off with “Retribution” Buried beginning their pummeling auditory assault.  For being a debut album and a bit of a style and sound change Oculus rot sounds like these guys have been together for far longer than a debut release.  The production pop into the first track is massive. The closest modern comparison I can make sound wise to Buried is Blood Red Throne.  The combination of heaviness mixed with incredibly precise musicianship and production are completely on point.

 

“Tornado of Blood” is another example of the insanely catchy riffing throughout the album.  Another band to compare Buried to would be Decapitated in that they have a lot of mechanical sounding stop and go sections.   Tracks like “Buried” would be another example in how groove elements of Decapitated could be an influence.   The layering riffing between guitarist Steve and bassist Worm works well together being that Buried only have one guitarist.  The title track “Oculus rot” almost has a Pantera like chug section.  “Splintered” is my favorite track.  Love the catchiness of the opening riff and the build into hair whipping blast parts.  There are parts that remind me a bit of old Ripping Corpse with the cool vibrato tags.

This album is quite relentless and with most of tracks being between three to four minutes long the flow of the album is quite consistent.  It is so early in 2021 but I really get the feeling this is going to be a busy year for awesome death metal.  This is one of those albums where you might want to stretch your neck because you may injure yourself listen to this with how brutally entertaining it is. The overall riff selection rules. I cannot think of any parts of this record I do not head bang to.  Vocalist Joel Sta crushes on this and if you have not checked out last years Arsebreed record you are missing out and I will most likely review as one of the albums I missed towards end of last year. I cannot really find any flaws with this and really am excited to see what Buried comes up with in the future.  Two thumbs way up!

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