BURIED REALM - Buried Realm

BURIED REALM

Album: Buried Realm

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Release Date: June 3rd, 2022

Country: USA

Label: Self-Released

Band Links: WEBSITE / BANDCAMP / TWITTER / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

BURIED REALM is the brainchild of guitar wizard, multi-instrumentalist and composer Josh Dummer, who crossed my musical path already in 2020 with his last release “Embodiment of the Divine”. While being a solo studio project, he also got company by several illustrious guest musicians back then, and so he does for his third record, which is self-titled and will be unleashed on June 3rd, 2022. "Buried Realm" sees the appearance of Christian Münzner, Bob Katsionis and Dan Swanö among others, and tells us about paranormal as well as psychological twists - Mind tricks.

„Entrance“ is a light instrumental intro, beautiful and melodic. A short moment to take a breath – and “Spectral Light” is breaking through with full power, high-speed blast beats and insane guitar work. The vocals are mostly screamed, with some growls in between, but no more clean singing as on the previous album - All melodies are delivered by the guitars. There’s a lot of energy in this first track, setting the bar high for the rest, but the following “Poison Palace” doesn’t calm things down, neither do the remaining songs.

“The Iron Flame” deals with the loss of family and friends, and while the music is unbrokenly aggressive and energetic, the screams tend to bother me a bit here. What definitely stands out is the incredible guitar playing. Next up is a tale of temptation and resurrecting evil: “Witch Bone”, offering some mesmerizing keyboard parts that sparkle over the mighty death metal sound.

“Where the Armless Phantoms Glide” continues with the paranormal / supernatural theme, blowing the listeners mind with an alternating vocal performance by Dan Swanö and Josh Dummer. “Elder Gods” comes along melodic, and even groovy during the chorus, dealing with the attempt to justify terrible habits by creating an own “protective” god. “Quicksand Memory” delivers a great finale, musically embracing the overall vibe of “Buried Realm”. Lyric-wise, it's about the terrifying thought of sudden memory loss. Track No9 offers a heavier version of Alice Cooper’s “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)”.

“Buried Realm” is a beast of an album with mind-blowing drumming, stellar guitar work, and the guest musicians adding even more solo magic. While the screams turn things a bit down as they’re used too much for my personal taste, the growls fit very well. The appearance of clean vocals every now and then like on the previous album would have been welcome nevertheless. With 38 minutes of playing time, the record is rather short, but for this kind of complex music totally fine. BURIED REALM fully convince with incredible playing skills of all musicians involved, offering highly technical yet melodic death metal for your listening pleasure. Crank it up \m/

Written by Katha