Track Premiere: Burial in the Sky – ‘The Pivotal Flame’

As far as progressive death metal is concerned, Burial in the Sky may well be known as the genre’s leaders after they release Creatio et Hominus, their second LP. Featuring a new lineup including Jorel Hart (ex-Cognitive vocalist) and bassist/saxophonist Zach Strouse, Burial in the Sky take things to the next level on new single “The Pivotal Flame.”

Strouse (who handled sax duties on Rivers of Nihil’s latest album) gets plenty of time to shine on saxophone here, complemented by death metal could be described as progressive, psychedelic or crushing depending on which part of the song you’re referring to.

“We want people to feel certain things that sometimes can’t be as easily expressed with the extreme side of music,” says founding member/guitarist James Tomedi. “We focused a lot more on the psychedelic, progressive, and atmospheric sides to the band to help evoke those emotions. From the perspective of composition, we really wanted people to be able to just enjoy this record. We tried to make it a good balance of accessible yet sonically complex and intriguing.

“Conceptually, it travels into the world of perception becoming the creation of all life. The thought process is the way we perceive things guides own personal reality. So in a sense, our world is our own. The way that you see it could be vastly different than me. With this record, we take the stories of great thinkers, mathematicians, inventors, activists, etc to try and paint an entire picture of life and all its small yet beautiful nuances through the way these people perceived it.

Creatio et Hominus is a start to something more artistically. During the writing process of Creatio et Hominus the music started to drift deeper into an approach that we hadn’t touched on nearly as intensely. Songs like “The Pivotal Flame”, the title track “Creatio et Hominus”, and “Nautilus’ Cage” are at the apex of where we found ourselves. The sound within those songs specifically shows the natural progression of Burial In The Sky. It certainly shows where we will go on future releases as well.”

Creatio et Hominus will be released on June 1.