REVIEWED: Burial - 'Rejoice In Sin'

Given the relentlessly bleak, harrowing and oftentimes downright unhinged nature of human existence circa 2024, it’s small wonder that the morbidly entrancing and cathartic medium we call black metal is positively thriving right now. From the grimly-inclined musical visionaries exorcising the most unimaginably wretched parts of themselves to the many legions of devoted fans seeking solace in these joyously twisted, diabolical orchestrations, it’s abundantly evident that this is so much more than just casual entertainment. And as a mammoth, blackly engulfing musical entity whose every airily lacerating riff and diaphragm-rupturing howl audibly reverberates with anguish, Mancunian genre talents Burial here plunge us headlong into a veritable abyss of unadulterated torment.

Pairing insanely paced episodes of wintry, tremolo-stricken hostility together with sizeable slabs of weightily reverberating groove, pandemic-era opus ‘Satanic Upheaval’ comprised a sonically immense and intensely disquieting debut. Four years on and newly unleashed follow-up ‘Rejoice in Sin’ finds the Northern trio in increasingly intricate and compositionally dexterous shape with a wealth of new material that’s audibly brimming with inspiration and possessed of a darkness palpable enough to chill the very marrow in our bones.

Finding keenly discernible reference points in everything from the heftily contorting, subterranean grooves of Bathory to the scalpel-edged intricacies of Dissection, Burial’s second studio album is one anchored firmly in the trappings and traditions of their genre-defining predecessors. Yet despite comprising a pretty quintessential specimen of the genre, ‘Rejoice in Sin’ is a record also richly imbued with its own uniquely distinctive character and wondrously sinister, unhinged energies. Stemming from an irrepressible urge for catharsis of the most violent and visceral calibre imaginable, the blackly engulfing ocean of existential torment contained within pulls the unsuspecting listener under with lethal, instantly affecting magnetism.

Opening up on an instantaneously ruinous implosion of pulverising blasts and scalpel-fine layer upon layer of frantically writhing tremolo, the album’s self-titled opener establishes the insane, synapse-scorching pacing that sets the tone for the whiplash-inducing duration of the record. Rampaging across a strikingly economical total runtime of 44 minutes, there’s a fluency and interconnectedness that makes the record in its entirety feel both strikingly cohesive and organic in design. But despite these staggering extremes of breakneck acceleration and brutality, theirs is, in the same breath, a luxuriantly layered mix forged by an audibly calculating hand.

Through innumerable, tautly intertwined strains of bristling tremolo and sleekly elongated guitar lines, ‘Wretched Is This Life’ manifests a monstrous, intricately orchestrated presence, its lacerating riffing structures recalling the mesmerising, monochrome symmetries of Mgła. Pairing this chilling aura of unrelenting bleakness with a rhythmically addicting plethora of gnarly bass grooves and anthemic vocal hooks that spill forth in a pitch-black profusion of larynx-shredding screams, ‘Wretched…’ comprises a fathomlessly desolate standout.

Delectably dense with sinew, jagged of edge and crackling with fire infernal, ‘Sadism For God’ witnesses a deliciously scabrous amplification of Burial’s signature, crust punk leanings. With its weightily reverberating bass lines settling into an absurdly contagious, civilisation-levelling groove alongside a staggering expanse of intricately snaking guitar accents, this blasphemous banger revels in a riotously energised calibre of carnage.

But it’s undoubtedly ‘Beneath the Trident’ that contains some of the most grandiose, sonically arresting material to be found within this breathlessly energised and absorbing long-player. Atop a bone-shattering onslaught of percussive blasts and grooves low-slung enough to graze the fathomless depths of the abyss itself, lightning-paced strains of ripping, angular tremolo amass exquisitely detailed enormity. With every hypothermia-inducing texture and luxuriantly unravelling guitar lead displaying razor-keen clarity within a deftly engineered mix, this sonically expansive amalgam of black ’n’ roll groove, propulsive rhythm sections and marrow-chilling atmospherics is nothing short of apocalyptic in stature.

With its quintessential blend of intensely visceral fretwork and pulverising pacing, Burial’s delectably sinister and brutalising sound remains firmly rooted in the classic trappings of their iconic, tremolo-laden predecessors. Yet despite being a veritable box-ticker of a record for those whose appetites gravitate toward all things frostbitten and misanthropic, ‘Rejoice in Sin’ also illustrates abundant evidence of a band rich in compositional intelligence and character.

Manipulating these many and varied elements into a host of blackly enveloping compositions spanning everything from ceaselessly bludgeoning brutality to finely sculpted riffery that tangibly smoulders with infernal fire, ‘Rejoice…’ is a uniquely configured beast of a long-player. Bewildering in pacing yet fathomlessly rich in atmosphere, mirthlessly desolate yet teeming with tautly muscled power, it is, without question, one of the most absorbing and sonically immense black metal records of recent times.

9/10

'Rejoice in Sin' is out now via Apocalyptic Witchcraft