Burial Permit studio 3 session

Burial Permit are a new power violence band, although they toy with descriptors like metal violence and the ungrindliest grindcore band. D'Arcy brought them to my attention last year just after they released their 5 song demo on bandcamp. At the time I knew that Spencer from Direct Approach had formed the band and had switched from bass to singer in this new band. Spencer has a theatre background and has learned how to sing from the diaphragm. Good thing because there was still a voice at the end of last night's session. That is particularly remarkable considering they did most of their songs more than once and they played a show the night before. 

I also knew Lautaro from Total Trash. Both bands had played in Studio 3 before, although Total Trash recorded in the old studio. I learned that Total Trash broke up or morphed into a new band called Home Invasion. I should also mention that Lautaro and Spencer have five other bands outside of Burial Permit and  to with each other. They list them off in the interview. 

Spencer warned me that we needed to do some work with Lautaro's set up. They had to bring a separate amp for pedals and sound effects that would become a big part of the song "Sleep". Lautaro was creating a layer of noise using guitar pedals, an old school portable tape recorder (old technology), and a cell phone (new technology). The cell phone was the first as in instrument for these sessions. Lautaro was wearing a Column of Heaven shirt and he talked about them as being an influence on the band's sound. Column of Heaven have adopted the sound and atmospherics of the early industrial scene and morphed it into their power violence influenced meanderings which also channel Man is the Bastard. Spencer spoke of the two bands as being peers in the Toronto scene. 

With regards to the song "Sleep", the guitarist Luciano, contributed by playing the guitar with a drumstick like it was a slide pick on the fret board's but not in the country and western application of the style.  It was to layer noise in a droning song to resemble pain. 

Luciano is Lautaro's younger brother. And the drummer, Thomas, is Spencer's cousin. The band is made up of a set of relations. And many great bands are built around families. Think of Devo who are two sets of brothers (Bob Castle, RIP). I have been reading about No Means No and the Wright Brothers who have made thirty years of great music. There is lots of promise for this band and the chemistry between them allows for creative dialogue to evolve. 

Luciano is an original member. Spencer is the self designated band leader. Lautaro is the most recent addition  not playing on the original demo. Thomas is the youngest and plays one of the most elaborate drum kits to ever set up in Studio 3. Spencer joked that Thomas plays the Neil Peart (Rush drummer) set ups. There was an extra floor tom, a double bass drum pedal, and loads of cymbals some of which were stacked on top of each other and others which had holes cut in then resembling Swiss cheese. Thomas also had a great story about being tutored by the drummer from Cryptopsy at drum camp over the summer. Thomas used to play in a prog metal band and Burial Permit is his first introduction into the punk world. 

Lots of these songs are the first times they are being committed in a studio. Some of these songs are re-recorded with the current line up. There is a YDI cover and a couple of improvised IDs. All of this was recorded and mixed by Ian Wilkinson from Big Brother. The songs are:

1. Writhe
2. Calloused
3. Less than nothing
4. Burial
5. Failure
6. Meat
7. Cycles
8. Privilege (which is now being called Willful)
9. Stray
10. Sleep
11. Out for Blood (YDI)
12. Truth
13. ID 1
14. ID 2

A video mix was edited together by Aldo from Punks and Rockers which will be posted up here soon.