Rockfreaks.net

To Bury A Ghost

The Hurt Kingdom EP

Written by: TL on 12/01/2011 00:02:56

Between the record described in this review, and the one in the review I wrote just before this one, I must admit that I have seriously come out of Disney Land and into the music scene of the grown ups. From raw, four-chord punk-rock and neon-synths, I've gone over to a couple of bands that have far greater abilities, and who put it on their agenda to showcase just that.

In this article, the band this goes for is prog/rock trio To Bury A Ghost from England. They have submitted for us their 2010 EP "The Hurt Kingdom", which showcases their intricate, dark and atmospheric brand of rock, which is spearheaded by the phenomenal singing of songwriter and vocalist Jonathan Stolber, who would seem to have gone to the same vocal training as people like Matt Bellamy and Thom Yorke. He wields his dark croon with impeccable precision, on top of patient and complex compositions, which allow for no questioning of the band's competence.

As is so often the case with bands like this however, one thing is competency, another is being capable of, or even interested in writing such a thing as a good song. I am aware that there are people in the world who find it intriguing when bands treat their tracks more like experiments than songs, but me, I'm more of a minimalist, and I consider experimentation to be a means, not an end.

The reason I spend lines writing about that, is that I suspect for To Bury A Ghost to be more interested in showcasing their technical ability and their unique soundscape, than in shaping things into anything that will truly stick to your memory after you get over how good their singer is. I for one, find only few truly interesting fix-points on this EP, and when the six minutes long, entirely instrumental, "Beginning Is The End" comes around at track four, I must admit that I am flat out bored. Again, this could mean that I've simply become impatient from listening to between five and ten new albums every single week of my reviewing life. On the other hand though, that could also have made me more patient than any of our readers. You listen and call it as you hear it. I'm giving this a:

Download: Coming Up For Air
For The Fans Of: older Muse, Radiohead, a progressive Placebo
Listen: toburyaghost.bandcamp.com

Release Date 06.12.2010
** Self-Released**