Buried Under Sky - Darkest Corners
19 Aug 2022 - Knut
Melodic Hard Rock/Death Metal | Self released | Release date: 19 Aug 2022
Having day jobs, but wanting to make music in their spare time these seasoned musicians joined forces to make an engaging album with catchy melodies. Having gone through almost every genre on the heavy side of rock and metal, they fuse their influences into five songs with memorable melodic themes.
These are really eminent songs, sung by a vocalist with an immense range. The melodies soar from his strong vocals, sometimes in chorus, sometimes dipping into growling Death Metal style followed by the other musicians. The band dips into a boundless realm of genres to build the music around the melodic themes. The most significant genres are melodic Hard Rock and Death Metal from where they entice undulating music that easily becomes earworms.
In the promo kit they say they have “(…)zero ambition to be the fastest, hardest, heaviest, or anything (…)”. That might be so, but the solo on the last track ”We Eat Our Own” might be the fastest and most melodic I have heard in a long time. It is just so well executed, being extremely fast without losing the melodic theme that embraces this song. At the start of this song, we are yanked straight into some heavy Death Metal music driven forward fast by the rhythm section and after a while the growling vocals are singing in harmony with the strong clean vocals. The solo guitar reveals itself in the heavy sonics and ponders in the background while the song turns into a blastbeat section and then into sweeping sonics to pave the way for the aforementioned solo.
Each song is built around the same template as it has a pattern that builds around the melody. There is the heaviness in every song, the clear strong vocals following the verse and chorus and each song has a section that dissolves into a vast soundscape always held up by guitars. This does not mean that the five songs are repetitive and the same, far from it. The fourth song ”Ghosts of May” opens with a short somber piano indicating that this is a song with a slower and wider pace with beautiful executed vocals over the echoing guitars and rhythms sections, with low end bass to give the feel of depth and contemplation. The vocals hold the catchy melody and slides into broad growling and after a while the sonics are lifted once again by the emotive vocals. The soundscapes open wide with guitars slowly riffing a melodic theme with some potent soloing when the song is sliding towards the end.
As the album opens with ”Extinguishing The Stars” there is about 20 seconds that evoke Tangerine Dream-associations before heavy riffs and rhythm section take over to lead us toward strong clear vocals followed by a melodious solo guitar sneaking in and out of the sonics. It is in this first song that you first encounter one of the captivating melodies and the elegant shifts between Melodic Hard Rock and Death Metal. The vocalist easily glissades between strong clean vocals, growls and chorusing with himself and others. There comes a heavy riffing part that fills the sonics with the guitar sweeping below until the ever-engaging melodic chorus we have heard before is back and fades slowly away.
The title song, ”Darkest Corners” unfurls the soundscapes with heavy riffs over the rhythm section and with light melodic synth droplets to lighten the soundscape before it widens to a broad endless space to make room again for the deep and powerful vocals that soar over the sonics. The track slides effortless into growling Death Metal before the melodic droplets are back supporting a choir. The slower parts of the song are supported by synthwave-like soundscapes. The swelling chorus parts are extremely dazzling. The track is impressively diverse as it sweeps over and lifts inspiration from numerous genres and blends them together thus evoking a very harmonic and engaging song.
The third track ”To Walk Upon Disintegration” is just as melodic and delightful as the others. It is shifting between heavy and light sonics to support the vocals. A showcase of melodic Hard Rock dipped in melodic Death Metal as it slides along. The vocals are coming in from many angels just to be overtaken by growling vocals showing once more the singer’s the impressive range. On this song, the bass becomes more distinct as it stears the song against an open part which is again overtaken by the Death Metal sonics before an abrupt end that suits the somber piano-opening of the next song.
To sum it up: If there ever was a diverse album, this is certainly one of them. It seems performed with effortless ease. That is why we know hard work, imaginative song writing and a gifted creativity lies behind this awesome EP.