The Burial – The Winepress
Out of South Bend, Indiana comes Christian metal outfit, The Burial. On the move and spreading an uplifting message while injecting the fear of God into audiences since 2005, this quintet has since found a steady home in Strike First Records and is now prepared to release their first full length record, entitled The Winepress.
Make no mistake, The Burial bring their sonic material in a ravenous and uncompromising fashion. However, before the listener is able to experience their destructive habits, a brooding introductory track in “Intercessor” bleeds through the speakers. The brief piece harnesses some bite, but beginning an album with spoken word and half-baked chugging has become entirely too cliché to label the composition as worthwhile. In fact, many Christian artists in the heavy music genre rely on these types of openings as a crutch –seriously, let us pray for a little more imagination. With that being said, from “Demons Never Sleep” on foreword, The Burial is semi-successful at regaining their footing.
The aforementioned track and first traditional song on The Winepress works well in capturing the bulk of what these musicians are capable of from a sonic standpoint. Initiating in standard metal fare, axe men Todd and Jeff scurry around their fret boards consistently alternating from menacing riffs to tasteful leads. Drummer Randy and low-end Jake comprise the rhythm section of the group and play rather well supporting the shredding before them and the varied, passionate yelps of front man, David. All of these components combined create fairly entertaining metal with a pinch of death metal influence, mainly featured in the vocalist’s intimidating low growls giving the band a sound similar to a more pissed off and less hardcore dependent Unearth with better variation in screaming.
Skipping the rather unforgettable title track, the quintet offers their most promising track on the record in “Reconciliation.” Here, there is no space for pussyfooting. Before the band, it would not be unfair to envision a sea of long hair wind milling as every component of The Burial performs at the apex of their abilities, igniting an unreal visual of community between an insatiable crowd experiencing rare satisfaction and musicians simply dropping the hammer of pure heaviness in return. Simply put, the fourth composition on the album serves as the salivating, slender hound closing in as the listener is chained to their speakers in paralysis. After the unrelenting fury of “Reconciliation” comes – believe it or not – an engaging and fitting instrumental piece on a metal album! This one bears the title of “Valley of Decision.” Built on the steady playing of the strings, the song unfolds with piano accents and soft waves of keyboard, creating a temporary refuge from the chaos that forms a majority of the collection.
From then on, however, the listener is unfortunately subjected to more of the same stale songwriting that first appeared towards the beginning of The Winepress. In places such as “Delegation of the Seven Plagues,” where the group explores more death metal influenced territory and takes a resounding step forward, there are two “Monolith’s” which demonstrate The Burial seemingly going through the motions, offering very little in deviation and thus, taking two steps backwards.
Regrettably, this is the nature of the beast for The Burial with their first album, The Winepress. Clearly evident is the fact that this five-piece has the ability to carve their own niche in the music community, especially if they continue to explore their better received death metal influences. For now though, The Burial has delivered a record mired in unoriginality and stained with a couple genre clichés, overshadowing the few glimpses of genuine talent and memorable composing. Let us pray for their success and better luck next time – let us pray.
About The Writer
Share This Post
Translate This Post
Buy The Album
Band Links
27 Comments
August 14th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Good review man. I am disappointed though, I was expecting more from these guys.
[Reply to this comment]
Josh replied:
August 14th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Thanks, Luke. I, too, was expecting more from them as well. There's always next time.
[Reply to this comment]
August 14th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
I was kind of hoping that this album would really boost this band up and show off the potential that they have…but apparently it doesn't. It's quite sad that it doesn't seem to live up to the expectations held for it, but I'll still give it a go when it's released.
Also, I'm quite keen to listen to 'Valley of Decision' now. I've read some really positive things about it here and elsewhere. Hopefully that shouldn't be a let-down…
Awesome review!
[Reply to this comment]
Josh replied:
August 14th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Thanks a lot for the comments Aanchel. Definitely give this album a listen regardless of my score. "Valley of Decision" is definitely one of the album highlights.
Rock on!
[Reply to this comment]
August 14th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Like Aanchel said, I'll give the album a listen, even if it is sort of under-accomplished.
Christian Hardcore always satisfies me, so I can't exactly pass it up :p
[Reply to this comment]
Josh replied:
August 14th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Yeah, man. I totally understand! Everyone has their type of "sound" you know? Totally give this a shot and let us know what you think.
[Reply to this comment]
Paul Patterson replied:
August 15th, 2010 at 10:30 am
I shall
Also, I forgot to mention, nice review Josh! Haha.
[Reply to this comment]
August 14th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
I totally agree with you on the review…..great job man.
[Reply to this comment]
Josh replied:
August 14th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Thanks a lot! Glad I am not alone.
[Reply to this comment]
August 14th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Besides one of them is wearing a Seinfeld shirt. Shun.
[Reply to this comment]
Jen replied:
August 14th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
+1 for the dude with the Seinfeld shirt. He obviously has good taste!
[Reply to this comment]
Josh replied:
August 14th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Seattle, WA for the win.
[Reply to this comment]
August 14th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
It's really apparent that these guys have tons of potential. Based on the samples alone, there are elements that I've heard elsewhere. Great job on the review.
[Reply to this comment]
Josh replied:
August 14th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Thanks a lot. What you say is indeed true. These guys have plenty of potential, I would just like to see them get even heavier with a future release and develop their songwriting a little more.
[Reply to this comment]
August 15th, 2010 at 3:19 am
I honestly thought the material from their last EP was much more intriguing than the new material on this album. It's probably because most of the band is now comprised of newer members, meaning a new sound. Oh well, maybe the next album will yield a better outcome.
Great review as always.
[Reply to this comment]
David M replied:
August 15th, 2010 at 6:58 am
Oddly enough, Jeff (Seinfeld shirt) was in the band right before they started writing a good chunk of the EP material. But as for me, I'm definitely the new guy. I'm not going to sit here and try to convince you of anything, because the truth is, if you like the cd, then awesome! If not? Fair enough. We realize we can"t please everyone, and most importantly for us, the music is merely a medium to the message of the gospel that we try to present, although we understand that's not an excuse to neglect good musicianship. As for this material compared to "Age of Deceit," we definitely were trying to go for more of a thrash/death influenced album without a complete overhaul and with the few songs we've been tinkering around with (this record has been recorded since early March), it's continuing with that progression. And when I say death, I mean actual death metal…Decapitated…Origin…Spawn of Possession… It doesn't mean we'll SOUND like them, but we're definitely pulling influences from them.
Anyways. I appreciate the honesty of the review. Thanks for not being a jerk, because it's easy enough to do so and not realize you can be constructive with your criticism wihtout an attitude. I hope anyone who decides to pick up the album enjoys it and comes and hangs out with us on tour. God bless, and have a great weekend.
[Reply to this comment]
Josh replied:
August 15th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Thanks for the comments, David! We appreciate the fact that you paid a visit to the site and took the time to read our review. I have to say I commend the message you are trying to share and you guys seem to have a growing medium to do so which is outstanding and will only continue to grow once the album is released.
Like I have said before, a review is merely an opinion and no one should flatly base their decision of whether to purchase an album based on someone else's perspective. Give these guys a shot, everyone, you may love what you hear.
As for your comments, David, thanks for being classy. You have no idea how many band members jump on the site and attempt to raise hell over scores, etc. This just shows great restraint and maturity. Thanks again and I wish you guys the greatest of luck touring and pushing this album!
[Reply to this comment]
August 16th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Hey, in reply to the Seinfeld shirt, I don't really have any "cool band shirts" to wear. It was either Star Wars or Seinfeld, and all of my Star Wars shirts were dirty.
[Reply to this comment]
Jen replied:
August 16th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Pay Luke no attention, Jeff. He's too young to know how awesome Seinfeld is!
[Reply to this comment]
Luke Amos replied:
August 17th, 2010 at 4:26 am
Should have gone with the Star Wars anyway bro!
[Reply to this comment]
August 17th, 2010 at 6:20 am
Jeff is totally lying. He has a Brokencyde AND I Set My Friends on Fire shirt; he's just too embarassed to wear them.
[Reply to this comment]
August 19th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
I, too, was disappointed with this album. I had heard of this band when they were on Sancrosanct Records. The stuff I heard from them then was better, in my opinion, than what is on The Winepress. My band was talking with someone from Sancrosanct at the time to possibly jump on a short tour with The Burial, but we ended up not being able to do it. That mini-tour was supposed to be like a trial to evaluate us for a possible record deal, I think. Or that's what we thought anyway. They haven't contacted us since then, hehe. Oh well. Anyway, The Winepress has some potential and some cool parts, but overall it is kind of bland and the production definitely helps keep it bland. I hope they decide to throw away the cliches after this. However, I've heard that they are pretty good live, and that's almost more important than putting out good records. Almost…
[Reply to this comment]
Josh Velliquette replied:
August 19th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Wow, interesting story. Good luck to your band in the future and yeah, I would totally be interested in seeing The Burial live.
[Reply to this comment]
David M replied:
August 20th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
While I'm not against constructive criticism by any means, it would be really awesome to see some examples of the parts people think are bland/etc? It's just interesting because I'm not offended, but when we see people that would like something different yet they never say "what," it's hard to cater, you know?
At the same time, we're not a crowd pleaser, because if that was the case, there would've been auto-tune vocals left and right and sweet synth, etc. We're all death/thrash heads at heart, and being our first album with this current lineup, there's obviously going to be a few kinks that we've got to work out, and even since this album was written (note: March), we've been writing some sweet stuff, more along the lines of Wretched, the Faceless, etc. Still our own sound, but yeah.
Not trying to be rude, but it would be awesome to hear the examples because "cliches" don't really explain where you're coming from. A cliche to you may be different to us, if that makes sense.
If you don't feel like commenting, my email is tipperbeanfad@gmail.com It'd be sweet to just discuss music in general, because when you get me going about God or music, it's game over haha.
Hopefully all of this has come off as reasonable and collected?
Have a great weekend everyone, and God bless.
[Reply to this comment]
Nitrohippie replied:
August 20th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
I'd love to discuss more, David. I'm the same way. Once I get going… oh boy, hehe. In a fun way though. I try not to get too heated, ya know? I'll shoot you an e-mail when I get a chance. I know I wasn't too specific in my criticisms, but it's just a comment and I really didn't have time to write an in-depth novel, hehe. But I'm up for the challenge
God bless you, too
[Reply to this comment]
August 21st, 2010 at 10:15 am
It's funny when I see people say they don't like clichés, but they like Age of Deceit so much better than The Winepress. I thought the EP was filled with many more clichés than this album. There were more breakdowns, more simple sweeping arpeggios, two-step beats, the song structure and form were a lot simpler, etc…
With this album, we stayed away from too many cheesy, boring breakdowns and focused more on being fast and melodic while staying heavy at the same time; playing solos while staying away from constant staples like sweeping and hammer-ons/pull-offs being overused; we incorporated more trash/death influences with more blast beats and alternating triplet drum beats rather than two-step beats; we focused more on a sporadic form rather than ABABCA every other song.
Maybe those are all cliché things that we did. I don't know. I'd been out of the metal/hardcore scene for a long time before we wrote this album. What I can tell you is: we had a blast writing this album and we have a blast playing live. And we may write simple, predictable, and unoriginal (that's the definition of cliché, btw) music, but we are good at what we do, and we have a blast doing it. And yes, we are amazing live.
I know that David already put up a reply about the review and the album and stuff, but I wanted to put in my own two cents since I am very proud of my band's work and I love music almost more than anything in this whole world.
[Reply to this comment]
October 27th, 2011 at 8:54 am
Yeah, you are wrong about this band and this album.
[Reply to this comment]