Dead & Buried’s last record The Company I Keep, remains stuck in my mind due to the horrendous typo that was plastered and the CD sleeve, rather then company, you had ‘comany,’ fortunately the printing press had remembered to put the music on there. From their inception they have always been a solid band, writing good, stout material that relied heavily on the typical hardcore constituents but did it well.

On Bear Witness, the growth of the band’s overall ability is impressive. The gloomy atmosphere that coursed through its predecessor isn’t as prevalent here but it is still present, adding just enough shade to each piece to bring forth the bite in the riffs and the pounding of Seivert’s beats. It would be easy to again, bring in the H word (see the Born from Pain review) but that would be such a demeaning and banal comparison to make here.

Dead & Buried are schooled on a much more underground diet of hardcore, more akin to forgotten giants such as Next Step Up, Bulldoze, Second to None etc, in short, burly, rugged and totally thugged out. ‘Mutilation,’ shows some awesome Slayerized via All Out War/ early Shattered Realm riffing that they portrayed on Company, but this time, its with greater finesse, greater control, which makes the impact (so, so important in hardcore) duly potent.

Admitted, this is not going to be hailed as one of the great records of the past decade, but its yet another stern example of people making the music they want to hear and doing it with passion, sincerity and above all, heart.

[Visit the band's website]

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