Planning For Burial

Planning For Burial - "Leaving", available now on ELHR.

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The first time I heard Planning For Burial, I was busy doing something else. I had the record on in the background. It didn’t make an impression. I burned a copy to listen to later, threw it in a backpack, and forgot about it.

About a month passed. Winter settled in. Leaves gone, snow everywhere, cold and dark in the morning. I was making long trips back and forth to graduate school. My car stereo was broken, and the radio and auxilliary input didn’t work. I started working my way through my CD collection.

I came across the Planning For Burial record. I threw it into the player, figuring I’d give it another chance on my way to class.

Twenty minutes later, I pulled into a parking lot, still 25 miles from school. I sat there, listening, volume up, car running, until the record finished. My hands were still on the steering wheel. My knuckles were white.

I was completely blown away.

It was probably a combination of a lot of things; the weather, my life at the time, the long drives, the solitary concentration of the car. Those things probably made an impact.

That doesn’t change the fact that this is a fucking incredible record.

Genre-wise, it sounds like a mix between Nadja and Coldworld; a beautiful, sludgy, slow, lumbering, melodic collapse. There are pianos, whispered, grumbled vocals, strings, heavy-as-fuck bass, fuzzed-out guitars.

But what makes this record incredible is the emotional content. You don’t need to hear the lyrics. You can hear emotional impact in every single note. This is a record that is true to the person that wrote it; and because of that, it sounds true to me, and it will sound true to you. You can hear yourself in this music.

This is one guy, some home recording equipment, and several years work. This is exactly what home recording is supposed to be about. It’s exactly what ENEMIES LIST is supposed to be about. If you’re reading this, you really need to hear this record.

Reviews

“Remember Explosions in the Sky’s most recent album, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, and how it was dreary for a band known for uplifting songs? Planning for Burial is that, amplified by a million. Piano and organ are peppered in here and there, and when they’re used, you’re in for some real fucking funeral music. These elements most stand out during Leaving’s closer and title track, which is a little over 13 minutes of unadulterated, melancholic drone. Lustmord may take you to the depths of hell, but Planning for Burial, with this track, take you into cold space, hovering over all that once was.” – Crustcake

“Music that you’ll need to play loud. Extremely loud. Superb riffs all the way. For fans of Mamiffer, The Spheres and A Whisper In The Noise.” – The Siren Sound

“Leaving is quite possibly the most amazing record ever to mix shoegaze, metal, doom, drone, and everything beautifully badass. Seriously epic songs that fill your heart with joy and make your ears fucking bleed. Crank this motherfucker up and let the bliss wash over you while you bang your head.” – Anti-Gravity Bunny

“Planning For Burial bring together drone and shoegaze, this time with little splashes of doom metal and black metal. Bringing to mind Jesu, Pyramids & Nadja and My Bloody Valentine as well as the dreariness of Explosions In The Sky’s All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone, this album is, much like HANL’s perfect Deathconsciousness, overflowing with emotion, almost to the point of being exhausting. I very strongly recommend this album, because it is definitely one of my favorite releases this year.” - Shock Mountain