So when I got a promo for the re-released debut EP (it was originally self-released back in July) from New Orleans’ Burial Gift, there was a certain sound I was expecting. I did not get that sound.

What I got instead was another very distinct geographical sound: that of Cascadian Black metal.

Yep, this sublime 3-song 19-minute EP is a full-on Atmospheric/Cascadian Black metal effort that you might hear from the likes of Alda, Wolves in the Throne Room, Downfall of Gaia (yes, I know they are from Germany, but they have ‘that’ sound), and such, but these guys also really remind me of Sunbather-era Deafheaven. Shrill, fierce, but emotive melodies, a few atmospheric bridges here and there, etc. But holy shit does this smoke.

The three songs on this cassette, “Sear”, “Elegy Azure”, and “Hollow Bloom” (is that a Deafheaven song name or what?) are all filled with stunning,  simply gorgeous tremolo-picked 6/8 melodies, especially the middle track “Elegy Azure”, which bursts out of the gate with bristling but airy melodies. “Hollow Bloom” has a more introspective mood and reflective moments, but wraps up the all too EP with a jangy, ferocious few minutes, signaling these guys might be onto something special with future efforts, and I’ll be looking forward to it.

Vex’s style is hard to sum up. At its heart its a sort of soaring, melodic, proggy, death/black metal. Structurally, it’s not unlike bands like early Opeth, Agalloch, The Living Fields or Wayfarer,  and one could feasibly hear former label mates Nechochwen and  Obsequiae in the tangled but majestic, naturalistic riffs, and that’s only a very loose comparison, as Vex are a shifty, skillful bunch that refuse to be locked into a style or category. Vocally, things are as varied as the music with big deep growls, high pitched scream and some solid clean croons and a nice robust production that’s big, earthy and jangly yet clear. And it all comes together perfectly.

After an intro, the aforementioned “To Anacreon (Strangling the Muse)” gets things going, and boy is that opening riff a doozy. A big, rollicking, rolling riff to sway your luscious locks to. And it’s set between equal parts atmospheric black blasts and some heartfelt clean vocals. After another interlude, “Empyrean”, “Antiethical Age” delivers  a nice slower, saunter with more graceful  clean vocals, such a hard thing to nail in metal, but they balance perfectly with some nice deep growls amid the song’s more laid back delivery.

The nine minute “Nowhere Near” is a sumptuous, sprawling number that’s hard to digest in one sitting, but if you wait till the fall, throw on some headphones and go for a walk, I imagine, the song and its mesmerizing mid section, simply comes to life. “The Cygnus Light” is a shorter, more digestible melodic death metal track,  that’s daresay, catchy in the big scheme of things., even with its atmospheric close. The shifty, meandering “Solar Sacrament” might be the only song on the album that does not truly hold my interest, but “Dark Skies Painted” gets my attention back and realistically could have ended the album. However, we get three more songs  (“30 Miles from Here”, more stern “August 11th” and instrumental closer “Astral Burial”) that push the album close to an hours duration, and frankly they seem a bit extraneous, as  albums early brilliant tracks are hard to overcome.

Maybe influenced by the video above for the excellent “Dark Skies Painted”,when I listen to Sky Burial, I cant help but picture lush rolling fields edged with meadows and thick, vine overrun woods but with a grey sky filled with impending storms looming over head. It’s a perfect balance of warm/tranquil and foreboding, but elegant, dreamy  and beautiful all at once, and one of the more engaging albums of the year.

Much like other US acts playing this style Horrendous and Fatalist ( RIP), Unwilling Flesh isn’t about reinventing the wheel (though Horrendous certainly tweaked it a little with their latest), but more about honoring a timeless sound and tone. Aided by fellow Nechochwen member Aaron Carey, D’Cagna, who plays everything and does vocals, delivers the sound in spades from the spot on HM-2 buzz saw guitars to the compositions that deliver memorable hooks, gallops and trots and some old school atmospheres to boot.

The end result is a nigh perfect rendition of the style, that borders on plagiarism or as D’Cagna states in his interview on this very site, “playful recreation”. And recreated it is, not just on the guitar tone, but the album contains enough 90s call backs to warrant playing of all early Entombed and Dismember albums to see what song they sound like. Case and point “Bathed in Desolation”, where the early bars are an almost note for note cover of Entombed’s “Sinners Bleed” from Clandestine. But there are enough of those recognizable throwback (ie “Morning Star Disciple”, “Fathoms Unfound”, “Secrets of the Dead”) moments mired in the band’s more unique raging renditions such as “Vanquished Daylight” or  “At One With the Earth” to make the album wholly enjoyable balancing both creativity and homage. There is even a longer more varied track in “Vaults of Eternity”, possibly the album’s only very slight misstep, though I wish there had been a slower, more somber songs as Dismember were so adept at later one)  to mingle in with the ragers, though “Nightmare Inception” comes close early on before raging way with ‘”Soon to be Dead” like urgency.

The passion and love for the style bleeds from every buzzing note and throaty growl, making Between the Living and the Dead a must have for fans of the genre, regardless of how many similar sounding albums you own. I hope D’Cagna continues this project along with his other great bands, adding a much need US contingency to a seemingly endless revival.