Burying Angels is a new project from the US, spearheaded by guitarist Mark Palangio as an homage to the late 90s Melodic Death Metal scene. With their first EP ‘Cathedral of Chaos’, Mark has put out a fantastic and deeply nostalgic release that will no doubt trigger great memories of the genre’s glory days. This is in great part thanks to the powerhouse musicians involved in the project. Mark was kind enough to give us some of his time to go over the project and his views on Melodic Death Metal.
Hi Mark, thanks for letting VM interview you. To start with, we’d like to know a bit more about the origins of this project. How did it begin and how did you manage to assemble such a formidable cast of musicians within Melodic Death Metal for both the regular line-up and as guests?
Thanks so much for the opportunity! Burying Angels technically “started” 20+ years ago when I was in college. I came up with the name and wrote most of the songs that ended up on the EP way back then. My original idea was to get some friends I knew through online guitar forums to do drums, vocals, and leads but it just never materialized. As I’ve got older I realized this was always a project I had a huge passion for and was a dream of mine to actually finish it. I’m the type of person that is either 110% into something or I don’t care at all, so I had the idea to start reaching out to some of my music idols like Peter Wichers, Chris Amott, Fredrik Nordstrom, etc and it all just started coming together! Very grateful to everyone that was involved and something I never imagined I would be a part of.
Based on your line-up, some might label Burying Angels as a ‘supergroup’. While it must be amazing to have all these musicians play on this project, it must have been challenging to have so many different perspectives and visions for how the EP should turn out. Was the songwriting process controlled by you or was it an open collaborative process?
That’s for sure a term I would never have envisioned being a part of! Haha! As someone who has massive respect for everyone involved on this project, I had the vision for what I wanted it to sound like and expressed that to Patrick and Torsten in particular. My songwriting is more melodic than aggressive, so I wanted the drums and vocals to be the more “extreme” contrast to the mid tempo/melodic guitars and it turned out even better than I imagined! I gave everyone involved a general sense of what I wanted, but for sure trusted the crazy amount of talent they all have and let them do their own thing.
How has the EP been received so far? How are the preparations for the full-length going and when can we roughly expect it to land?
It’s been overwhelmingly positive and I can’t thank everyone enough who has listened! When I started the recording process for the EP, I had no plans for this to be more than just the four songs, but I was so inspired throughout the process that I immediately started writing more. I’ve already got some incredible players lined up to be involved on the full length and hoping it can be completed near the end of the year or very early next year!
The EP, the promo statements and your #melodeathmonday posts on IG reveal a profound adoration of 90s Melodic Death Metal. The fact we have started to see a small revival of bands paying tribute to it seems to be a symptom that it morphed into something far removed from its origins. What do you think is it that separates 90s Melodic Death Metal with ‘modern’ Melodic Death Metal?
I think a lot of modern metal is very technical, complex, and precise. Old school melodic Death Metal to me is more about writing great riffs and melodies, and usually the more simple it is, the better it sounds. I was never a technically proficient guitarist by any means, so I think that “helped” me get better at writing things that were just catchy or sounded cool.
You are from the US. While your country spawned some great bands in this style in the nascent days (thinking of Garden of Shadows, From the Depths, Enforsaken, etc), it feels that Melodic Death Metal was much more openly embraced by the hardcore scene which gave rise to the metalcore explosion of the early 00s. What are your memories of those times and why do you think it was more embraced by them rather than the traditional Death Metal scene?
I can’t speak for anyone else, but as someone who was in their late teens around that time, I would say the melodic aspect was the driving force to most of that music. Punk rock and nu metal were really big at that time as well, but when all of these European bands starting playing low tuned Iron Maiden style harmonies and riffs, it was just infectious. I do remember as the 2000’s progressed, the genre was actually getting overwhelmed with so many bands playing a similar style and it became cool to not like it. I think that played a role in some of the bigger bands totally changing up their styles at that time.
Despite its accessibility and popularity relative to more plan Death Metal, it feels there were so many bands and albums that fell through the cracks over the years. If you had to list 5 Melodic Death Metal albums you consider extremely underrated, which would you choose?
So many to pick from! These five came to mind immediately and are all absolute masterpieces in my opinion.
Autumn Leaves – As Night Conquers Day
Without Grief – Deflower
Sins Of Omission – The Creation
Eucharist – Mirrorworlds
Sacrilege – The Fifth Season
To close the interview, feel free to give any closing thoughts you might have on the future of the band, state of the scene or just about Melodic Death Metal in general.
I’m so excited to get the full length completed and that’s my sole focus right now. Patrick, Torsten, and Johan will all reprise their roles on the album and Fredrik will again do the mix and master. And of course expect some more legendary names to be involved as well!
