(We welcome back guest contributor BreadGod with his review of a late-2012 demo from a Redlands, California band named Buried, which is now available as a “name your price” download on Bandcamp).
Some time ago, I wrote a short blurb about Buried during one of my weekly strolls across Bandcamp. The frontman really liked what I said about his work, so much so that he sent me a free copy of the demo. I received the package a few days before Christmas and it turned out to be what the ancients called a “cassette”. My first reaction upon seeing it was, “What is this rectangular monstrosity?” Luckily, it came with a free download code, so that way I didn’t have to go on a quest to obtain a cassette player.
As the band’s name implies, this demo is a slow descent into the grave, a grand and morose display of blackened drone. The drums are monstrously slow, only one beat every ten seconds or so. The almost complete lack of percussion reinforces the bleak atmosphere. The bass strings are plucked only once every couple of seconds, giving the music a dank and cavernous feel.
The guitars are the backbone of this dark performance. By cranking up the distortion, they are able to play just one chord and let its black smoke drift across the plains, engulfing and suffocating all life in its path. The vocals consist of a rasp that’s pretty standard, but they’re made creepy by the fact that they show up very rarely, like a strange, gaunt creature that has emerged from the shadows.
Of course, Buried aren’t all drone and misery. About four minutes into the last song, they switch things up by playing at a much faster tempo. The drums pound and the cymbals clash with relentless fury while the guitars still spew their miasma, this time in a bit higher tone. Drone purists may not like this, but I do. During the climax, the pounding of single piano keys echo through the subterranean realm.
I don’t usually like drone, but I really enjoyed this. The music Ryan Herrera has crafted here is absolutely suffocating, and I loved every minute of it.
2 Responses to “BURIED: “THE ONLY PROMISE””
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Anyone care to try and explain the appeal? Do drugs need to be involved? Enlighten me please.
i’m the guy who made this and i’m straight edge so no, drugs are not necessary at all. i’m hesitant to explain the “appeal” of my music because i don’t want to tell anyone why they should like it or what they should be taking from it, but i can explain a little about why it appeals to me personally to make this music. i’m very interested in atmospheres and states of mind, and music can be a tool to create or change these things, so in my music i explore textures and depth and density that can give off a certain “feeling” for lack of a better term. the extremely slow tempos and minimalist arrangements, to me, create a very dark and suffocating place for the listener to inhabit when listening to my music. Buried is very visual for me, and often when writing or playing live i see the sounds i’m creating as a three dimensional space that i’m inhabiting, i very much like the idea of being enveloped by music and different instruments playing together make me think of this “space”. it’s a difficult thing to explain, hopefully that shed at least a little bit of light on it. if i could make a recommendation, listen to my music in the dark and as loud as you are comfortable with, the idea being to remove any external stimuli, and while it’s playing don’t listen to it in the sense of “oh here comes my favorite riff” try to focus more on individual layers of sound and how they relate to each other. i guess don’t try so much to listen to it, it’s more like let it happen to you. i hope that helped!!