BURIAL MOON hails from both Northern and Southern Europe, maybe. Little is known about them apart from the music they have produced—a self-title debut EP issued on December 8, 2023 via Signal Rex. The album is a brief four tracks long, spanning exactly 22 minutes. It is as raw as you’d expect from a debut Black Metal album—Atmospheric in its grayscape immersion, but not necessarily Ambient. Think redline distortion covered with one of those weighted blankets, but cold and damp.  

And if the band is being reticent about disclosing who they are, they are at least more forthcoming about their subject matter with song titles that second as actual lyrics. Personally, I love the tiles. In a perfect world we would similarly name our progeny. I also love the album cover. Looks like a Yeti wraith scouring the dead landscape of Limbo, the video game . . . which I also love.

Musically, well, there’s not a lot going on here. You could throw a fistful of funeral ash and hit any number of Atmospheric Black Metal bands that sound just like this. The mix is too saturated to pick out any details on actual musicianship—which I know is intentional, so I’m not knocking the aesthetic decision, just the obvious outcome.

No real standout tracks. This is four tracks of sameness . . . so thumbs up for consistency, I guess. If the band wants anyone to take notice, they’re going to have to improve their production so we can discern their ability to perform, or even hear the lyrics. Being murky and evil, obscure and enigmatic isn’t going to cut it in a world habitually covered in darkness and despair.