Hailing from Adelaide, Australia, In the Burial throw plenty of curve balls to the uninitiated listener. First off, the moniker had me expecting some form of metalcore. Then the album starts playing and I’m suddenly listening to hyper blasting technical death metal akin to Origin, that’s pretty kick ass. Then on the fourth track “Amaranthine’s Departure” (with an absolutely blistering intro) there are black metal keyboards for your pleasure – not hokey, deathcore superficial ones like Make Them Suffer or Winds of Plague, but some pretty impressive synths.

And that is the M.O. for most of the album. Amid the shrill, proficient and pretty fierce tech death metal, there is this subtle, underlying black metal gloss. Not a hipster, post rock, shoegaze, but some blasting, frosty tremolo picked real black metal that often collides with the tech death savagery with impressive results.

The vocals are a dual deep growl and scream and the production is solid, if expectedly processed and clicky, the norm for tech death metal. But some strong songwriting and these slight forays into blacker pastures give the album some standout character. Most of the tracks deliver the aforementioned Origin (or other top tier current tech death act) type approach with shrill blasts and arpeggios, littered with a few more burly controlled moments such as “Scourge of Humanity”, “Mortuary Procession”, “Bleeding the Innocent”, and stop/start salvo of “Merciless Carnage”. But it’s tracks like the aforementioned “Amaranthine’s Departure” or tangibly blackened percussion of “Solace in the Arms of the Dead” that deliver something a little different.

The eleven minute closer “In Death…Absolution” is more than a little different. It’s a sprawling, pure black/death metal track, something that Order of Ennead might belt out. It’s much more fluid and organic in overall sound and delivery, even with a few growls and stuttering moments here and there. There is even some female vocals and an acoustic, atmospheric bridge and an epic solo. But as if to remind you who they are, after a couple minutes of silence, the band crashes back with a salty tech death explosion to close out the track. It almost sounds like a completely different band, but in that rare good way, as it signals hopefully a style the band will further develop on future releases, which I will be looking forward too.

[Visit the band's website]

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