The keen reader might remember American outfit Bury The Pines from an interview we published last year, praising the talented group as boasting “a unique and peculiar offering on the current rock landscape, a formula that’s relatable and emotional, yet nuanced in its execution”. We stand by our words: Bury The Pines navigate the intersection between progressive, punk and emo influences, all smushed together into a surprisingly cohesive and eclectic offering. The overall listening experience is electrifying and measured, shifting between intricate riffs and punchy distortions at a moment’s notice.
Vocals are a big part of it, too. Damon Smith, on lead vocals, does a great job, showcasing a melodic tone that’s not afraid to cluster up in heavenly harmonies or descend into intense territories. Joe Skowronski and Evan Hendrix on guitar, Nick Fischer on bass and backing vocals, and Mat Markuz on drums complete the talented lineup. Now, we did in fact tease a forthcoming EP in our previous article about Bury The Pines. It turns out that they then decided to skip it and continue releasing a number of singles. That journey is now coming to an end with their debut album ‘Industry Plant’, out now.
In it, we are confronted with ten tracks that speak volumes about the project’s expansive and inventive compositional allure. You see, there’s a constant tension between your run-of-the-mill emo and evocative rock, and not-so-hidden references to nobler progressive and culturally gifted material. Guitars do a lot of the heavy lifting here, with occasional easter eggs keeping it all fresh and eclectic, such as the saxophone solo in ‘Pardon My French’.
Delving deeper into ‘Industry Plant’ and the change of focus from an EP to an album, Bury The Pines explain: “We didn’t set out to record an album at first, originally it was going to be an EP. Towards the end of the process, we came up with another couple of songs that we really wanted to release, so we delayed it another few months and recorded what we think now is our best work. With that said, there wasn’t necessarily an overarching theme in mind, but we made enough references to the music industry and our place as a growing, independent act that we played on that for the title.”
Recommended! Discover ‘Industry Plant’ on Spotify:
