Review: “We Are Bury Your Dead” EP by Bury Your Dead

Boston Massachusetts Metallic Hardcore Kings Bury Your Dead may have been around since 2001 but they ain’t never put together an EP. So after six studio albums and one live album the band have returned 8 long years after 2011’s “Mosh n’ Roll” with their first foray into the shorter format. The line-up now consists of Mat Bruso on lead vocals, Chris Towning (ex-Devildriver) on guitar, Aaron Patrick on bass, and Mark Castillo (ex-Between The Buried And Me, ex-Crossfade,  ex-Emmure) on drums and having let a single in “Collateral” out of the bag way back in March, announcing not only that the new material would be produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by former The Acacia Strain guitarist Daniel “DL” Laskiewicz but would appear via Stay Sick Recordings, everything has been properly hyped.

Continuing the theme from their sophomore album “Cover Your Tracks” that had Tom Cruise films as the song titles with this new release will give older fans the chance to crack a smile before even pushing play on “Minority Report”. Bruso is in fine vocal form with his easily recognisable bark firmly in place at the heart of the bands sound. The interesting use of a screamed and spoken word one word backing vocal to finish off some of the lines adds depth and texture while Bruso screams “I’m here after all these years so f***ing take me out”. There are tongue in cheek lyrics that reference the bands history while the message is we’re here to stay and the barrage of riffs, little snippets of buried electronics and a clean crisp drum sound prove it. “Oblivion” introduces a stompy riff with some tones not too far away from mid career Emmure. An off kilter take on a love song it talks about what would happen should the love leave with a sense of panic that is reflected in the gradually increasing pace of the music and the final breakdown is nothing short of phenomenal. “Maverick” takes us back to the bands “Beauty and the Breakdown” album for its sonic crush of chugging, juddering guitars with the pace and energy of a prize athlete. Some buried electronics provide a sense of tension while the mortuary slab sized breakdowns will bring out the dead with the moshers at the shows.

Adding a dirge riff and some haunting thinly veiled leads to create a sickening sense of tension “Lions For Lambs” builds into the pile driver over some clenched fist vocals from Bruso. The ambient break that bridges to a brutal final verse and breakdown isn’t something we’ve heard before but works incredibly well as the calm before the storm. The first pick from “We Are Bury Your Dead” as a shot across the bows that said “We’re back” in March came in the form of “Collateral” and it’s not a song that has faded away since. A burst of modernised Bury Your Dead that keeps the bands sound current, it bounces along with brutal guitar tones and stuccato riffage with a few of their older techniques in the mix to bring it together with an air of familiarity. Changing the pacing in the vocal battering in a socially aware track about cycles of abuse means that some of the relentlessness of “Mosh n’ Roll” has been cast aside to make way for something more. Overall a brilliant new piece of Bury Your Dead that we hope isn’t the last. Their star is still as bright as ever [8.5/10]

Track listing

1. Minority Report
2. Oblivion
3. Maverick
4. Lions For Lambs
5. Collateral

“We Are Bury Your Dead” by Bury Your Dead is out now via Stay Sick Recordings