In late 2014, Planning For Burial's Thom Wasluck left the red house in New Jersey he’d called home for the last decade to return to his childhood bedroom in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Back in the house where he grew up, Wasluck found himself cut off from the familiarities of the previous decade as he put himself to work in the family trade. The monotony of routine quickly set in; work, home, and alcohol day after day became the norm. The childhood room that had given birth to his primordial four-track recordings was now a place of emptiness. These conditions set the stage for Planning For Burial’s third full-length, Below the House.
In terms of genre, Planning For Burial is often simply characterized as "gloom," which can be seen as a blend of slowcore, shoegaze, doom, 90s alt rock and drone, and this album offers nine sullen and frequently heavy songs that brim with nostalgia and suburban ennui. It is a return to form of sorts to his beloved first album, 2010’s Leaving — an introverted work characterized by its heavy dynamics and personal obsessions.
Since the beginning, Planning For Burial has been a solo endeavor. Wasluck has been recording music himself and touring extensively as a one-man band, playing hundreds of shows in DIY spaces and nightclubs, where he has shared the stage with acts like Deafheaven, King Woman and Chelsea Wolfe. Both incredibly loud and intimate, Planning For Burial plays with an unrivaled passion and funereal grace that is equally at home in basements and large venues.
Out now on The Flenser.
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