Burial Grid works in the darkness. It’s not some blatant creepy faux dark vibe, but really tapping into a kind of darkness that sits inside all of us all our lives. The thoughts we think but never set free in words and in ears. The doomed twins hapless and hopeless that are always in the room just out of eyesight, waving at us and screaming “We’re here! We’re here!” for only our ears. Burial Grid’s Adam Michael Kozak looks at the dark matter inside and out and creates with it. He molds it into something; if not something healthy then something therapeutic. My Body Dissolves as I Watch and Dissolve, Burial Grid’s 2019 full-length took negativity and darkness and spun it into something insightful, thoughtful, and even hopeful to an extent. Glitchy EDM, classic 80s industrial, and alternative electronic come together in Burial Grid’s sound for a wholly engaging and visceral experience.
On Halloween Kozak dropped the surprise EP Babies in the Bunker, a 3-track deep dive of dark electronic. Besides two originals(one old, one new), there’s also a cover of David Bowie’s “Five Years”. As you’d expect, it’s all just about perfect.
“In Memory Of Everyone I’ve Ever Known” is sort of an ode to the beat down working class. The hapless groove to the 9 to 5, the punching in, punching out, the guzzling of the black fuel from a styrofoam cup. Kozak sings “Let’s scratch some lines in the dirt/And calculate our net worth/And when we figure it out/Boy is it going to hurt“. This could also have been called “Blues For The Working Hack”.
“Babies in the Bunker” is dark and deep, with music that sounds like Pinkish Black and Bauhaus. Watching someone you love deteriorate before your eyes is never easy, and this track puts it into stark perspective. “The ribs extend through yellowed sallow skin/There’s no more insulin at all/I feel my heart choke/It’s getting quiet now.”
The EP ends on a cover of Bowie’s “Five Years”. A sort of robotic, A.I. rendition of the classic The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars opener, Kozak’s vocoder’d vocals make this cover almost more endearing by creating this sort of distant melancholy. It’s like an android’s show of love to the Thin White Duke. It’s quite the amazing rendition.
As Ministry once said, “Everyday is Halloween”, so go grab this amazing 3-song EP from the even more amazing Burial Grid(it’s free, yo.) Another solid release from someone willing to be brutally honest and earnest when so many aren’t these days.
7.9 out of 10
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