Nefarious Campaign

I met the bass player here, Chris Moriarity, on the set of some TV show we worked on and we started talking metal because I commented on a band shirt he was wearing. The next day he brought me a brand new CD of this album by his band, Burning At The Stake. Nice guy.

A few days later, when I listened, I was very impressed. The musicianship and just the overall quality of this quickly won me over. I generally lean towards traditional death metal (Suffocation, Immolation, At The Gates, Autopsy & so on) but I’ve always appreciated good technical stuff as long as the true spirit of death metal is there. These guys have that and, quality wise, we’re in the same ballpark as Origin or Decapitated, in my opinion. ‘Nefarious Campaign’ can throw elbows in a pack with any number of badass records by the likes of Allegaeon, latter day Deeds Of Flesh, Necrophagist and so on. It’s tight, brutal, inventive and well-produced.

A description of the music would be lots of sudden stop/starts (like Decapitated) and lots of flourishes and details within each song… mostly by the guitars, but sometimes explored with bass, drums or vocals as well. Sometimes one or two instruments go it alone for a few seconds before the others jump back in the fire. And it’s a fire through & through- everybody here kicks supreme ass, and the guitars- Tom Wilson & Mike Miller, set it all ablaze. There are some sick solos and beautiful melodic interludes and, overall, just a ton of variety within each track... but it still manages to feel focused & devastating, so that variety gives it some nice staying power on repeat listens. And at 36 minutes, the band doesn’t overplay their hand, as many do.

My only complaints would be that I wish there was maybe a little more “dirt” or grit in the production (that’s just personal taste- the production here still kicks ass) and, if I was their manager or something, I’d advise them to become even more distinct in some way in order to separate themselves from the pack (because it’s such a competitive field full of outstanding musicians). But "more distinct" wouldn’t mean adding any more variety within the songs, because there’s plenty of that... and if you go too far the center doesn’t hold. Origin’s ‘Antithesis’ is often cited as their best because the songs there are more focused. But these are just personal observations & this is nonetheless badass.

Highly recommended if you can find it.