Album Review: A Burial At Sea – Close To Home (Pelagic Records)

Inimitable post-rock outsiders A Burial At Sea return with ‘Close To Home’, a soaring sonic love letter to the places and people that shaped them, released on February 23rd, 2024, via Berlin’s Pelagic Records.

Has it really been so long since A Burial At Sea dropped their stellar self-titled debut album? 2020 seems so long ago, and a lot has happened in the world, but this record takes on a more personal perspective. Close to Home is A Burial At Sea looking backwards, while moving forwards. Having wowed listeners with their unique combination of shoegaze, post, math-metal, jazz-infused, and brass-led music in 2020, they now return with something even grander, deeper, and more lovable.

This is an album of beautiful music, evident from the very start with the dreamy páirc béal uisce (Gaelic for Waterside Park). A track that embodies the blend of haunting shoegaze melody and heavier post sounds that A Burial At Sea are so well known for. It’s huge sounding opener, that grows and grows, as it goes on.

Though, that is to be expected, and the following tor head builds upon that with an incredibly layered example of modern post-rock that continues to show just how much A Burial At Sea stand out from the pack. Frenetic, but with melodic order, the vitality that comes from this track is one thing, but as is the case with this band and this album, it’s also really pretty.

A Burial At Sea will make you feel, without ever speaking a single word. A track like down to the floor has heart-wrenching melodies but wanders off in progressive directions. A track like Hy-Brasil is a bright and brilliant showcase of the jazzy infusions that A Burial At Sea make seem so natural in this music, and a track like GORSE BUSH ON FIRE has heart-racing rhythms and massive bursts of post intensity. One of the finest tracks on an album of fine tracks.

By the halfway point, A Burial At Sea have delivered one of the best albums of the year, and yet, there’s still so much beauty to be shown.

Take objects of the house, where slow and forlorn melody is joined by a rare thing with this band, which is vocals. Distant, and delivered in a way that makes the track even more wistful. Then there is NEW old, a track of two parts. Where the first half could act as a sleep aid, such is the relaxing properties of its melody. Then, following a jazzy portion that sounds particularly beautiful, the band explode with some of their heaviest sounding post-metal so far.

The bright brilliance continues to impress beyond words, as Masterfred brings back the subtle vocal performance. It’s one of their more layered tracks and has big boisterous bursts of vitality. Before everything you are not delivers cinematic elements with some of the album’s prettiest melodies, and T.G.G.O.A offers up a truly gob-smacking story, with a man recounting elements of Irish history and his own personal experiences of war. It’s very short, but fascinating, because it’s not ordered thoughts, rather a litany of thoughts pouring out at once. The music, sitting behind the voice and growing in power, is so pretty, it may move you to tears.

Hold ‘em back though, as there’s one more to come and it’s an epic unlike any of the other epics that have appeared on the album so far. Featuring vigorous post rhythms, deep melodies, starry jazzy layers, and so much more. It’s DALL, and A Burial At Sea couldn’t have ended things in a better way.

There is no ending though, not really, as the moment this track drifts away, everyone will be hitting play on the album again, such is the entrancing nature of it. It’s simply too good to ignore, even if the genres that A Burial At Sea cover, isn’t something that normally appeals to you. It’s the kind of album that changes minds, creates fans, and makes this band even bigger.

A Burial at Sea – Close to Home Track Listing:

1. páirc béal uisce
2. tor head
3. down to the floor
4. Hy-Brasil
5. GORSE BUSH ON FIRE
6. objects of the house
7. NEW old
8. Masterfred
9. everything you are not
10. T.G.G.O.A
11. DALL

Links

Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Pelagic Records