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Biography : Bury Your Dead

Since the release of their Victory Records debut, ‘Cover Your Tracks', in October of 2004, Bury Your Dead has seen much success. With a second stage slot on this summer's Ozzfest, video play on MTV2's Headbanger's Ball, tours with bands like Walls Of Jericho and The Red Chord, praise from publications like Revolver and Outburn, and “Magnolia” on the soundtrack to the feature film “The Cave” this summer, Bury Your Dead is one of New England's hardest and most promising acts yet.

Formed in 2001, Bury Your Dead started off as a side project of a band called Hamartia (whose "To Play The Part Of" was released by Goodlife Records), which featured Slim B. (guitar) and Mark Castillo (Drums). With the metalcore sound of Hamartia growing tiresome to both Slim and Mark, they started writing more moshy and less technical songs in their free time. They recruited Rich Casey (formerly of Groundzero) to play bass and Joe Krewko as vocalist and began playing shows in the Massachusetts and Connecticut areas under the name Bury Your Dead. News of their unbridled energy and destructive live show spread immediately around the East Coast hardcore scenes and the band was courted by Alveran/Eulogy Records. The band recorded and released their debut album titled ‘You Had Me At Hello‘ in March of 2002, borrowed a van, then toured in support of it. Not only had Bury Your Dead begun making a name for
themselves out East, but they began to take over the rest of the country. However, upon their arrival home after several successful tours, Bury Your Dead decided to go their separate ways - Mark (drums) moved back to Philadelphia and began touring with Between The Buried And Me, Rich (bass) went back to running his own screen-printing business, and Slim (guitar) began playing guitar in the band Blood Has Been Shed.

After several months had past, Rich called Slim out of the blue and expressed his interest in getting Bury Your Dead back together. They rounded up their old lineup and a few others to fill in and played some shows back, heading down to Florida to play the annual Gainesville Fest. They ran into their old drummer, Mark, who was touring with Between The Buried And Me, and they discussed their desire to make Bury Your Dead a serious band again. Mark agreed, and the band did a few short touring stints as well as appearances on influential hardcore festivals such as Hellfest, and Metalfest. Their lineup was as tight as ever – to the old schoolers Slim, Rich, and Mark they added Mat Bruso on vocals and a second guitarist, Eric Ellis (formerly of Floridian band Reflux). Bury Your Dead was back and stronger than ever.

With their lineup in place and their goals set, Bury Your Dead was approached by Victory Records in July of 2002 after their unbelievably brutal set at Hellfest and they signed a deal with the label the following winter. Bury Your Dead spent the next several months touring and when summer started to approach, they holed up in Massachusetts and did nothing but eat, sleep, and breathe the new Bury Your Dead songs, which would soon be their Victory Records debut titled ‘Cover Your Tracks' "The whole writing process this time around was a lot different than the last", said Slim. "We had so many ideas floating around in our heads, so we decided to shut out the outside world and do nothing but get these ideas put together into songs. Literally, for two weeks, we did nothing else but write ‘Cover Your Tracks'". They finally entered the studio in June of 2004, choosing to record at Q-Division studios in Somerville, MA with producer Matthew Ellard, who has gained notoriety since recording artists like Converge and Between The Buried And Me. "Recording with Matthew was great, he added so much to the record", notes Slim. "It was also nice that Matthew already knew Mark from his days in Between The Buried And Me, so it was a really comfortable feeling in the studio right off the bat."

‘Cover Your Tracks' was recorded over a month-long time span and is one of the most brutal, destructive, and raging hardcore records to emerge from the East Coast scene. Musically, Bury Your Dead pulls their influences from bands like Sevendust and Crowbar, while their actual writing style is based more on mood and feeling, not on what they are listening to. Slim states, "This record helped the band as a whole exorcise a lot of demons. Each song tells a different story, and most of them are a big middle finger to someone or something."

Just in time for this year's Ozzfest, Bury Your Dead will be bringing their thunderous live show straight to stereos with the release of ‘Alive', their first live album, on July 12th. ‘Alive' will be released as a DualDisc with audio CD and DVD footage filmed at their now legendary show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA. With an exclusive coffin-shaped digipack that must be seen to be believed, ‘Alive' was recorded by Paul Minor (Death By Stereo, Atreyu, Terror) on May 10th, 2005, and the renowned videographer and filmmaker Darren Doane filmed the show for the live DVD. The deafeningly loud crowd sings along and bodies fly everywhere in the pit as the men of Bury Your Dead bring their unmistakable talent and penchant for organized chaos and ass-shaking to the stage! Bury Your Dead are poised to become the only band that matters this summer… don't miss them on Ozzfest!