Planning For Burial 'Below The House'

n 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, Thom 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 (of which the first single “Whiskey and Wine” is streaming here).

In terms of genre, Planning for Burial is often simply characterized as “gloom,” which can be seen as blend of slowcore, shoegaze, doom, 90s alt rock and drone, and Below the House offers nine sullen and frequently heavy songs that brim with nostalgia and suburban ennui. It is a return to form of sorts to Planning for Burial’s beloved first album, 2010’s Leaving– an introverted work characterized by its heavy dynamics and personal obsessions. Likewise Below the House is a work that feels just as private, as it was created in the dark and not expressed in Wasluck’s day to day life.

Since the beginning, Planning for Burial has been a solo endeavor. Thom has been recording music himself and touring extensively as 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.