Review: “Gallows Rise” by Buryfication

In 2021, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for Blackened Death Thrash crimes they didn’t commit. These men, known for their prior work in Proscription, Cemetery Winds, Necrobiosis and The Lifted Veil, promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Finnish underground. Today, still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them… maybe you can hire Buryfication. After their 2022 debut EP “Leviathan” put them on the map by reflecting the frustration, anger, dissatisfaction, and incompleteness of great plague years, vocalist Marko Ala-Kleme, bassist Pasi Bunda, drummer Mikko Koskinen alongside axe wielding duo Henri Kyllästinen and Tommi Kolehmainen issued a twin track promo “Haunted, Enslaved, Devoured” to set the scene for the next chapter…

The promise was of half an hour of power following a thematic route from steady and thrashy riffing to manic blackened brutality where death is always present and on that the quintet deliver with gusto. “The Plague” is the start of the avalanche, a little whammy bar action and a death growl in the first few seconds providing the spark before diving into tar pits of blackened Death Metal from which there is no escape. Ala-Kleme’s vocals are caustic with classic 90’s Florida Death Metal vibes about them while a blistering solo is tasteful rather than over the top flamboyant. It’s like Buryfication knocked out four of your front teeth with a single punch, then gave you an ice pop for the swelling. Koskinen has been given a crisp and clean yet thunderous kit sound which means every hammer blow of “Supreme Being” is felt as it was intended, delivered with a restless and relentless vigour that brings Krisiun to mind. Harsh demonic chanting in the mid section gives this one a real darkness while the Black Metal leads provide the light. “Human Cattle” has a familiar introduction giving it instant appeal, the sinister urge pushed that little bit further by the early solo. Anvil heavy, this monster lives in the shadows, waiting for its prey with endless blast beats and blackened riffs to the point that you might consider it Deathened Black Metal rather than Blackened Death Metal if you catch the drift. The Thrashier opening strains of “Let Them Suffer” are in the style of the old school adrenaline fuelled offerings of bands like Executioner and if you haven’t worked it out by now, this Buryfication love whammy bar action. Another with demonic vocals in multiple voices to create the illusion of more than one vocalist with good use of vocal layering, this is the kind of beast your mother warned you about.

By the time “Year Zero” arrives with all its savage fury and rampaging riffs, Ala-Kleme’s vocals have become incomprehensible, his throat merely another instrument in the bands arsenal of implements of destruction. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as he genuinely sounds like a demon spawned from Hell itself, his venomous roar as throat splitting as it is ear splitting. By this point the fretboards are smouldering with the sheer volume of riffs delivered by calloused hands shoehorned into this one and given the punishment beating the drumkit has taken it’s a miracle there aren’t split skins and dented cymbals. Title track “Gallows Rise” is along similar lines, the key difference being a face melting solo which offers a little respite from the sheer intensity of the flames coming from this towering inferno of brutality. It feels like the record gets progressively faster, louder and heavier as it plays out, as if the band have challenged each other to see how far they can push it before their instruments begin to break. Testament to that “Trails of Blood” is a ripper delivered at neck snapping speed, the vocal layering once again put to exceptionally good use as the band beat you to death with a brick of Extreme Metal in its purist form. An old school introduction gives “Haunted, Enslaved, Devoured” a different feel, the artillery shelling percussive performance reaching unbelievable levels. The riffs soar into a flamboyant solo with shades of epic grandeur and after your ears stop ringing you can’t help but wonder just how far Buryfication could push the envelope. There can be no doubt that the talent is there to become genre pioneers, if that is a direction in which they wish to travel [7.5/10]

Track Listing

1. The Plague
2. Supreme Being
3. Human Cattle
4. Let Them Suffer
5. Year Zero
6. Gallows Rise
7. Trails of Blood
8. Haunted, Enslaved, Devoured

“Gallows Rise” by Buryfication is out 23rd August 2024 via Kvlt und Kaos Productions