Burial - Relinquished Souls

BURIAL - Relinquished Souls (RAW SKULL Records - LP 2019)

I don't know about you, but personally I worship the early 90’s Dutch death metal scene almost as much as I do the US, Swedish and Finnish ones. There were so many great bands then, so much classic stuff that 25-30 years later it still reigns supreme! What a glorious time... Burial definitely belonged to the best bands from Holland, in my opinion. Maybe it wasn't the best option when they chose Burial for their band name... There were several bands playing with such moniker and few of them – like the British one and two American Burials – were really good bands. But my favourite Burial came from Holland and although they didn’t play for too long, they managed to leave behind a great masterpiece called “Relinquished Souls”. 

First time I heard this album was around 2008 or 2009, so I was very late, but at that time a lot of old, forgotten death metal albums were given a second life. And many of them later were re-released – which is great. So was “Relinquished Souls”, which first came on CD/LP from VIC Records and later also from Raw Skull Records, in a great, better quality (nice insert with lyrics, photo collage, great sound quality...). But late or not, this album caught my attention straight away. 

From the very first seconds I knew that it’s going to be a real death metal feast! And it is. First thing I’ve noticed when “The Second Coming” vomited the opening riffs were: 1) great work of bass and 2) that the production for this album is just like Massacre on their cult “From Beyond” LP! It's very close, in my opinion, with similar sound, vocals, riffs style... It sounds great though. But then another surprise comes with “Failure of Technology”. Shit, this one is massively influenced by Death and everything that Chuck did on his “Leprosy” and “Spiritual Healing” LPs!!!! Similarity comes with the riffs, chorus and the melody that follows it... Certainly Death is a band, which influenced Burial the most, what you could notice later on the album even more. 

Burial actually admitted what their main influences were in the booklet and thanks list haha. Nevertheless, “Relinquished Souls” is a very good album. It's aggressive, but also catchy, with fantastic riffs, well done vocals and interesting ideas. Listening to this album is still a damn pleasure, as it just ticks most of the boxes of “what do I want from classic death metal record to hear”. Burial re-recorded three of their demo songs on the album – “Traumatized”, classic “Frigid Cold” and “Pitiful God” – all well played, without much re-arranging if comparing them to their demo versions. Rest of the album was based on their new songs. 

Anyway, it’s a shame that Burial split up after this one album. Yes, they reformed later in 2000’s, but it’s not the same anymore. For me they were one of many talented and really great death metal bands from the early 90’s, which deserved more, but unfortunately had to be buried by time and dust way too early. It’s cool then that some labels exhume such jewels. Great pick, very recommended vinyl release. 

Standout tracks: “The Second Coming”, “Failure of Technology”, “Frigid Cold” 

Verdict: 90/100