Large Fierce Mammal

I first heard, indeed first heard of, The Burning Hell only last week when Stuart McLean played their song When the World Ends to end an episode of The Vinyl Cafe. Give it a listen and you’ll get a clue why I was instantly hooked, and why The Burning Hell is the first featured artist for Dark Sentiments 2012.

According to the band’s website –

The Burning Hell is the alter-ego of songwriter and ukulele-slinger Mathias Kom. Loosely based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, The Burning Hell has toured back and forth across Canada and Europe since 2007, playing everywhere from festivals to bars to living rooms – and once even a mental asylum in rural France. The band has garnered acclaim for their hyperactive live shows and their caustic yet sincere lyrics, believing as they do that songs about the inevitability of death can also be fun to dance to.

In 2012, The Burning Hell both made AND broke a record: the band recorded their newest album ‘People’ (to be released in spring 2013) in Berlin with producers Norman Nitzsche and Ramin Bijan; later in the summer, The Burning Hell set a new world record, playing ten shows in ten countries in less than 24 hours. But the band isn’t tired yet, and 2013 promises to be action-packed. Join us and live forever.

“… songs about the inevitability of death can also be fun to dance to.” Sweet Jesus, what’s not to love, even without the Newfoundland connection? The work speaks for itself.

I’ll close with three more illustrative and uplifting ditties. First, from the Tick Tock album, Here’s Dance Dance Dance.

Next, from the Happy Birthday album, here’s Grave Situation Pt. 1 –

Lastly, and so as not to leave you hanging, here’s Grave Situation Pt. 2 –

Just for fun, here are the lyrics to that last one so you can sing along!

See my skin peel away right off of my head
Look at my cheeks all pulpy and red
They’re the same cheeks you kissed when I was a kid
So long, so long ago.

See my little shriveled hands like the claws of a bird
I know it sounds crazy, I know it seems absurd
But they’re the same hands that touched you and drove you insane
So long, so long ago.

These bones: take them in your arms
This skin: touch it one more time.
I may be dead, but you’re still mine.

See my curled up lips pucker up for a kiss
See my brittle little hips, see my bony fingertips
These same fingers were crossed when I said ‘til death do us part’
So long, so long ago.

And look at my hair – it’s out of control, it keeps growing and growing and oh my soul
Is trapped in this box and I can’t do nothing, I’m down in this hole
My eyes may be gone but I can still hear every word you whisper in some other ear
But soon you’ll be down here and we’ll be together again.

These bones: take them in your arms
This skin: touch it one more time.
I may be dead, but you’re still mine.