Four years is a long time, especially in the underground. The tumultuous musical climate buffets acts like frail leafs struggling to hold on. If one looks away, the leaf is long gone and what was once heralded is now forgotten. That said, thanks to their originality and spirit, some acts need not adhere to the confines of timely releases. Ottawa's Buried Inside are one such group, taking almost a half-decade to construct Spoils Of Failure. With its exploration of diverse musical elements and curious idiosyncrasies, one quickly understands how Spoils Of Failure took four years, due more to necessity than wanton procrastination. Uniting the severity and brutishness of second generation hardcore with a sonic fury equivalent to closest relatives Neurosis and Isis, Buried Inside intensify the metallic girth and overall orchestration demonstrated on previous outing Chronoclast. Spoils Of Failure is a sprawling epic delivered with torment and anguish over music that oscillates between serene beauty and chaotic, overdriven madness. With only song titles pared down to their basic elements (represented simply by Roman numerals), every other aspect of Spoils Of Failure is an exercise in delving into the extremities of emotion and musicianship, resulting in Buried Inside's most inspired, cohesive and confrontational effort yet. When presented with an album like this, the wait is entirely justified.
Spoils Of Failure must have been an ordeal to orchestrate; it's so intricate.
Vocalist Nick Shaw: In terms of the writing process, we were picky. We have a loose approach where no one really writes anything and brings it to practice. We just show up and jam. That's a lot slower than someone showing up with a song written. We usually just record with a 20-year-old handheld tape recorder. We press play and Mike the drummer is the bearer of these cassettes. There were suitcases - hundreds of hours of crap - he had to go through to pick out pieces we'd expand on or go back to.
What about the thematic approach? There's obviously a theme to the album?
[It's] about the benefits of calculated negligence, naked promises and even disaster, communication technology or the "information age" and somewhat, of its crime in Canada. A lot is about the language and hype of communication technology and not being conned into them, arguing there's an inconsistency in the representation of them. There's this idea of a Utopian future of universal and affordable access of information for all. Different songs argue different points about it, such as how industry sabotages standard and fundamental aspects of all industry. Another talks about the degradation of telephone service in Canada overall.
(Relapse)Spoils Of Failure must have been an ordeal to orchestrate; it's so intricate.
Vocalist Nick Shaw: In terms of the writing process, we were picky. We have a loose approach where no one really writes anything and brings it to practice. We just show up and jam. That's a lot slower than someone showing up with a song written. We usually just record with a 20-year-old handheld tape recorder. We press play and Mike the drummer is the bearer of these cassettes. There were suitcases - hundreds of hours of crap - he had to go through to pick out pieces we'd expand on or go back to.
What about the thematic approach? There's obviously a theme to the album?
[It's] about the benefits of calculated negligence, naked promises and even disaster, communication technology or the "information age" and somewhat, of its crime in Canada. A lot is about the language and hype of communication technology and not being conned into them, arguing there's an inconsistency in the representation of them. There's this idea of a Utopian future of universal and affordable access of information for all. Different songs argue different points about it, such as how industry sabotages standard and fundamental aspects of all industry. Another talks about the degradation of telephone service in Canada overall.