Release Date: May 22nd 2026. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
Burn Holy - Tracklisting
1. Burning The Olive Tree
2. Windflower
3. Ashen Altar
4. Negations
5. Be Not Afraid
6. Screaming, Drowning Pacified
7. Forget Me Not
8. Eyes Without Light
Members
Matt Mitchell – guitar
Flynn Hargreaves – bass
Marina Lavelle – vocals
Bryce Ramsey – guitar
Tim Iserman – drums
Review
Doom/Post-Metallers Burial Clouds have gone under some significant lineup changes since their acclaimed 2023 album Last Days Of A Dying World. Only founding members Matt Mitchell (Guitar) and Flynn Hargreaves (Bass) remain from the line-up from that album. Marina Lavelle takes over the position of lead vocalist that offers a start contrast to the last album.
Bryce Ramsay (Guitars) and Tim Iserman (Drums) have joined the band as well which sees the band operate with a more powerful and beautifully dynamic sound. Burial Clouds sophomore album Burn Holy still offers a similar tone to their last album but one that leans quite heavily into the areas of Shoegaze, Post-Rock and Alt Metal with delicate experimental touches dictating the quieter moments of the album.
Opening track Burning The Olive Tree captures a band demonstrating their newly found creative energy which transforms into levels of Doom, Post-Metal, Prog Metal and Atmospheric Sludge surroundings that can be quite folk obsessive especially within how the vocals are delivered at times. However, there’s a menacing and violent quality that appears within Marina’s vocals and the brutal onslaught of down-tuned instrumental sounds that can move into areas of Thrash Metal which was a welcome surprise especially within the excellent second track of Windflower.
Burial Clouds showed influences from the likes of YOB, Mastodon, Alice In Chains and Pallbearer on their last record which you can feel instantly here but there’s a sense of grounded Post-Doom and Gothic realism within this record. Marina’s vocals are beautiful, poetic, violent and even horrifying at times when she delivers brutal screams into the mix. Sometimes you feel that there are multiple vocalists performing on this record as they all have a different flow and identity to each other. So be prepared for some extreme vocals being added along this heavy monolithic journey.
Burial Clouds move into more disturbing levels of Extreme Metal which I’m fully on board for as the record still manages to convey a hugely original style of Post-Doom, Sludge and Post-Metal that makes you questioning your own sanity at times on tracks such as: Ashen Altar, Screaming, Drowning Pacified and Eyes Without Light. However there’s still moments of pure uplifting musical brilliance that feels like it’s coming from a different band but Burial Clouds continuously surprise for the better throughout the album.
The dual vocals are another highlight which showcases a wonderfully constructed “LIGHT vs DARK” aspect to the whole album with intense outbursts of thrash metal beats and sullen Post-Metal movements that leave a lasting impression on the listener.
Even the production values are top-notch with Burning Clouds engineering, recording and mixing the album themselves. That was a masterful decision for the band to take. As it gives them more control over their own music and it feels like a more personal record compared to their debut album. The band was mastered by the legend that is Brad Boatright at the famed Audiosiege.
Burn Holy is a complex and brilliantly daring album that Burial Clouds should rightly be proud of and one that could establish them even further within the underground scene and beyond.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Earsplit PR for the promo.
Burn Holy is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl.
Links
Official | Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram
