Review: Burning Palace – Elegy

Style: Dissonant death metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
For fans of: Artificial Brain, Ulcerate, Gorguts
Country: California, United States
Release date: 21 March 2025

Dearest Chairman Christopher,

It has once again come to my attention that the Subway’s Division of Psychological Warfare has received its quarterly budget of six pesos. This, as I’m sure you are well aware, is down from last quarter’s nine pesos. You speak of misappropriation of research funds, yet I distinctly recall the commissioning of a statue of Garm in our new headquarters. Which we still have not found.. Furthermore, I find your incessant demand to “not continue research on IQ-dropping dissonant death metal” to be more than insulting. As such, I will be handing this in as a response to the research on 4/4-time signatures and major scales, a treatise on a hive-mind entity called Burning Palace and its byproduct known as Effigy. Please see the tape enclosed and listen to its contents as you read this letter. I give this to you not as a gift, but in hopes that you hate it so much, I can be free of this prison known as The Progressive Subway, and my talents in IQ-dropping phenomena can be appreciated elsewhere.

My co-researcher Andy promptly gave this to me after your vile letter of demands, and mumbled something about how “the British hate dissonant chords”. I must be honest, I don’t know what he says most of the time. After the incident last week, he merely sits and stares at the wall, occasionally making cooing sounds when he hears a nice riff. Fortunately, for both him and me, the most recent transmission on our docket had plenty. Its name: Elegy, and rest assured, you will hate this.

Allow me to explain this phenomenon to your soft, malleable brain. Burning Palace occupies the space of their aural brethren, Artificial Brain, with dashes of influence from the transmitters known as Sunless. This aural oddity has effected our test subjects in similar ways to the mighty Replicant, sending our unwilling participants into a blind, frenzied rage upon listening. Chairman, you do not understand the freedom that comes with hearing a riff like the one that starts ‘Birthing Uncertainty’. The absolute bliss of unlocking that primal state of man is something you and your “pop sensibilities” could never understand. You hear screeching guitar, gurgling and banging drums, but what I hear in this opening song is a knack for song structure.

Burning Palace are akin to Ulcerate in that structure and atmosphere triumph over all in dissodeath. Too often do these bands find themselves tangled in a web of their own minor intervals and tritones, forgetting that sometimes, a headbanging riff solves all. ‘Transversing the Black Arc’ gave our test subjects seven straight minutes of headbanging, arpeggiated riffing and blackened, foggy atmosphere. At approximately four-and-a-half minutes, one test subject burst into flames from the song’s title drop and the godly riff that’s underneath it. The transmission’s blackened atmosphere is on full display here, recalling barren technological hellscapes not unlike what the intern Justin’s office looked like after his first day. Despite the more cerebral nature of the seven-minute opus, Burning Palace proceed with ‘Suspended in Emptiness’ which rid our subjects’ brains of any wrinkles they may have had left. What starts as a jaunty bass riff becomes a rampaging, blast-beat laden verse that evolves into lead work that I’d dare to call catchy and melodic.

There is little fat nor filler to be found on Elegy, with the transmission being a tight forty-four minutes long. The only flaw I can possibly find is the sheer primal aggression of our subjects began to wane at the closing title-track, which may either be from exhaustion or recovery from the four-hit combo prior. ‘Sunken Veil’ is sure to leave you convulsing and bleeding from the eyes with its sprawling, heavy chugs and bass-tapping, so perhaps ‘Elegy’ is there as a means to attempt to recover one’s sanity at the end of this transmission. If you’ve made it that far and not lost your mind, dear Chairman, then perhaps you are stronger than I perceived.

Consider this my letter of emancipation from your clutches and “genre diversity”. You will rue the day you asked me to research anything but the most brutal music possible, and I hope this is a lesson to you and your kin. The Progressive Subway has made itself an arch-nemesis in my name, one who understands the inner complexities of transmission such as Burning Palace. You must understand, though you may hate this immensely, I find it to be a mark of what happens when your IQ drops low enough. You sit and talk of “no more metal”, but I then ask you, what would your world look like without chugs or screams? Think on it, Chairman.

Your slave and enemy,

Head Researcher Zacharius

Recommended tracks: Traversing the Black Arc, Suspended in Emptiness, Awakening Extinction (Eternal Eclipse), Sunken Veil
You may also like: Afterbirth, Wormhole, Replicant, Anachronism
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Violence in the Veins – Bandcamp | Facebook

Burning Palace is:
– Chris Derico (bass)
– James Royston (drums)
– Josh Kerston (guitars, vocals)
– Ian Andrew (guitars, vocals, keyboards)