BURIALS

 

I work with a fellow who's a few years older than me and grew up in the rough orbit of the Boston punk/hardcore scene. Saw BAD BRAINS in '81. Saw SSD, DEEP WOUND, NEGATIVE FX, all the shit. Bought all the records when they were new for like $2 and is still a record collector so still has them all. Moved to San Francisco in time to see the wild heyday of SF hardcore - THE FUCK UPS w/AGNOSTIC FRONT, The Mab, B.A.S.H. violence, heroin pretty much lopping the whole damn thing off at the legs. And then around '84, he started listening to and collecting jazz. Kept the punk records but ditched the punk in favor of SUN RA and CHARLES TAYLOR. You talk to him about punk and he seems almost surprised that the genre continued after he lost interest. My point? Well, when the stadium crust kids shifted gears and started playing DISORDER influenced noise punk in 2009, do you think that stadium crust just....stopped? Of course not. Likewise with the second generation noise punk kids who started scooping up BAUHAUS and CHRISTIAN DEATH records and giving bleak brooding punk a worthy resurrection in the early '10s.....while the third generation noise punk kids held fast in the shadows with their shoelace headbands. Just because you aren't listening (anymore), doesn't mean it's not happening. And somewhere, someone is just as juiced as you used to be - and their excitement is no less relevant, no less intense, and no less important than yours was. Which all has virtually nothing to do with Portland's BURIALS except that I feel like I would have succumbed to the waves of these sounds had they washed over me in 2004 or so - I get the same feeling I had when I saw BARONESS in a Milwaukee basement in front of eight slackjawed attendees. I don't really listen to much music "like this" anymore, and technical guitar work tends to leave me flat....but The Tide is a storm, and BURIALS are completely in it. While you're expanding horizons, check the split with EXHAUSTED PRAYER on End Theory (more atmospheric death metal, less technical). And know that it's all happening, whether or not you're paying attention. 

THE TIDE