History & Biography The band was first formed under an earlier moniker in 1995 and, as with
so many other bands, played around with cover songs of bands like Iron
Maiden, Slayer and Judas Priest. The line-up was comprised of Mendoza,
De Yta, guitarist Rudiger and Mendoza's cousin on drums.
The band soon released The World Beyond demo. All the same, a more
professional drummer was recruited and Rudiger is fired from the band.
Much to the new line-up's surprise, the band soon won a Mexican
National
Underground Heavy Metal contest. This would have lead to a contract
with
Denver Records. The band was not content with the contract's potential
and instead signed with Oz Productions. The group was also given the
opportunity to open for Cannibal Corpse and Hypocrisy.
The band was supposed to have a split release with Dies Irae, but
instead the label released a full-length album. Beyond Your Mind
featured singer and keyboardist Ivan and was recorded and mixed in a
mere five days. Not soon thereafter the band lost its drummer to his
studies however. Oscar, who shared a band with the aforementioned
Rudiger called Twilight, was drafted into the act.
What followed was a Mexican tour with Disgorge, The Zephyr, Shamash and
Under Moonlight Sadness. Simultaneously the band was looking for a new
singer to bolster its stage presence leaving Ivan to concentrate on the
keyboards. The search lead to the entry of Olgiun. The sextet would fly
to Sweden in the autumn of 1999 to record Perceptions at Studio
Fredman.
Shows in Germany, USA and the band's homeland followed.
The line-up would not remain stable however and the band would soon
lose
Oscar to his music studies and would fire Ivan due to a lack of
interest. Romero was soon recruited, but a keyboardist was not added to
the line-up - now a quintet.
The band entered Studio Fredman again in February of 2002 and recorded
Necrosphere with Fredrik Nordstrom. The release of Necrosphere was
supported via a mini-tour of Germany with Mourning Caress. In the
summer
of 2002 Buried Dreams would fire Romero due to the latter's lack of
interest and would, consequently, end up halting all activity
contemplating a new name and direction.
Reviews BURIED DREAMS - NECROSPHERE - OZ
While attempting to review this album, which has surprised most at Metallian Towers, let it be known in advance that what follows will not do Buried Dreams justice. The Mexican quintet of Erick Olgion (vocals), Ndua Valdespino and Antonio De Yta (guitars), Ezequiel Mendoza (bass) and Daniel Romero are too complex, and sporadically too technical, to be fully and correctly described within the confines of a review.
Buried Dreams is often compared to In Flames and other stalwarts of the Gothenburg sound and there certainly is much to that. The interaction of melody and heaviness, the rare offbeat riff and the sense of structure are all here. yet there is more, and that is where Buried Dreams makes Gothenburg an image in the rear view mirror. Past the obvious musical and compositional savvy, this act exemplifies the art of having many things occur musically simultaneously without losing cohesion or the framework of the song. Let's face it, this band knows how to play. Then there are the varied vocals (Sadus, In Flames, Dark Tranquility), incredible riffs and rhythms and the wild wail of a guitar supported by a warm and very present bass sound. It is so that when the band slides into a jazz fusion instrumental later in the album, the piece sounds both impressive and appropriate. Furthermore that would not be the end of it. Yet, the magic of Buried Dreams is how despite all this the band is most appropriate for any metal fan and particularly for those who admire speed/death metal.
A quality artwork and a production courtesy of Fredrik Nordstrom at Studio Fredman leave any concerned reassured that Necrosphere comes with the highest calibre sound.
Interviews When Ali "The Metallian" contacted Buried Dreams guitarist Antonio de Yta, the idea was to shed more light upon a Mexican technical metal band which has undeservedly suffered from underexposure. Buried Dreams' 2002 album Necrosphere, released via the home-grown Oz Productions in Mexico, was certainly worthy of a lot more fuss from the scene than it was accorded. Unexpectedly though, De Yta's reply contained the news that the band is ditching its name! Fear not though for, in the course of the last ever Buried Dreams interview, De Yta exclusively reveals concrete plans for the future. 04.01.2003
METALLIAN: Antonio, thank you for speaking with Metallian. How about beginning by telling the readers which band's album is playing on your stereo right now?
DE YTA: Thank you very much for the interest! Right now I am listening to the new Bloodbath - Resurrection Through Carnage - and let me tell you that it kicks ass. It has been a long time since I heard such good death metal. I have been very interested in this project since the release of the single and now I am very satisfied with the full-length. I think all the musicians in that band are very talented and have always given something new to the metal scene. The interesting thing is that right now all of them play in a very different direction from when they started out and it's great to see that they can still do something very heavy. It reminds me a lot of Edge of Sanity, Dismember, Entombed or even Obituary. I would recommend this album to all fans who are into death metal, old or new.
METALLIAN: Is Bloodbath influencing you?
DE YTA: Well, since this band is a new one, it hasn't been a great influence, but the bands of the respective musicians that play in it have been a great influence - starting with Mike Akerfeld from Opeth whose band has inspired us a lot. This is one of the bands that started mixing many different tempos and changing from acoustic to heavy parts and if you listen to our first release there is much like that on the album. Their newer works are simply amazing too. Some people have told us that Necrosphere sounds similar to Opeth in many parts. I am not really sure, but it doesn't bother me to be compared with them. Actually we met those guys in Milwaukee and forged a good friendship with them.
Then there is Dan Swano who is a person I admire a lot. All of his projects are great, as a producer, guitarist, drummer, etc. I mean he is a multi-talented person. I love his project Nightingale and obviously all the stuff he did in Edge Of Sanity. And what to say of the two guys from Katatonia? All these bands have influenced our music directly.
METALLIAN: Would you say that is where the band's musical mindset originates from?
DE YTA: When we started back in 1995, we didn't have a good idea what we wanted as far as sound. All of us liked different stuff and we just wanted to play metal. As with all bands we started covering song we liked, so there were some Iron Maiden songs, Metallica, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Sacred Reich, Slayer and many more. After some time and with a new drummer we decided to write our own songs. At that time we listened to doom bands such as Amorphis, Therion, Pyogenesis, Anathema and the Gothenburg bands such as At The Gates, In Flames and Dark Tranquillity.
Consequently our idea was to mix a little bit of everything and come up with something different. I don't know if we really managed to create something new, but at that time there were no bands like that here in Mexico. Something funny at that time was that our drummer was more into old rock, like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Beatles, so that also gave a different sound to the band.
Another great influence is classical music. Our bass player also studies classical bass, so you can find some classical structures in our music.
METALLIAN: Although you touched upon the evolution of your sound, it might be better were you to remind the readers of Buried Dreams' history. I understand that you jammed under a different moniker at first.
DE YTA: Wow, I will try to create a flashback... As I said earlier we started in 1995. It was Ezequiel on bass, Rudiger on guitar and I on the other guitar. We first jammed together on weekends. It took us some time to find a drummer. The first one was the cousin of the bass player, with whom we played only covers. It was a funny time I mean we were 16 years-old, so we just played at some friends parties. Several months passed and while at a party we asked some friends about a drummer so they introduced us to a good one, but we rehearsed with him just several weeks. Several friends have come to a rehearsal and one of them played drums too, so we jammed with him that day and were impressed so we asked him to play with us! With this drummer Buried Dreams was born. We played a few gigs and things were cool. You are right though. Before using the name Buried Dreams, we used Darkgate, Blackfire and Abismo. We started rehearsing much more and we recorded a three-song demo. The path was made easy with the announcement of a heavy metal contest which we didn't know whether we should even participate, but ultimately thought it would be a good opportunity to see how good we were.
At this time we had fired Rudiger due to some personal differences and we were looking for a new guitarist. There was this guy who was a good friend of ours who also liked our music and knew some of the songs. We asked him to help us for this contest as he was actually playing with other friends called Hidden Darkness. There were 36 bands competing in the contest so we didn't expect much, but we graduated to the finals and then won it! This was very important for us, because this opened the doors of the Mexican metal scene for us. This lead to our supporting Cannibal Corpse and Hypocrisy in Mexico, which were two amazing concerts. After that we recorded our first album Beyond Your Mind - with no studio experience - and for this Ivan Santos (vocals and keyboards) joined the band. He also played with Hidden Darkness. We recorded and mixed the album in just five days, so everything had to be done in a hurry. We liked the result though, and it was well-received by many and consequently we started playing in other cities. We played often during that year and gained many fans.
But then the drummer quit the band because he wanted to finish his studies and we started looking for a replacement. After a long search we decided to ask Oscar, a friend of our other friends, to join us. He had a project with Rudiger our first guitarist called Twilight. At this time we were invited to play on a tour package together with Disgorge, The Zephyr, Shamash and Under Moonlight Sadness. This tour was a huge success and we started to gain a lot of attention in different corners. During this tour we looked for another vocalist in order for Ivan to concentrate more on the keyboards and to have a singer who could have more of a (traditional) frontman role. As such, Eric soon joined the band. He previously played with Pyphomgertum - a brutal death metal act. So with this now-stable line-up we decided to record the next album for which we wanted to have a very good sound and so we chose to travel to Gothenburg and record at Fredman Studio.
Following the recording we played for the first time in Germany and later toured more around Mexico. We played at the Milwaukee Metal Fest and everything was marching well. But then Oscar wanted to study music in L.A. and we fired Ivan because of a lack of interest. We had to look for another drummer Daniel joined us, he had played in a band called Awakening so we started writing stuff with him and also decided not to use keyboards anymore for a new album, We recorded 2002's Necrsophere after which we made a mini-tour in Germany with Mourning Caress and played more dates here in Mexico. I must sadly say that we recently had to fire our drummer Daniel because he didn't show much interest and we had many problems with him. This led us to a new decision: The Buried Dreams era is over! Yes, we are tired of changing drummer every time. This has stopped the band from growing as it should. There has been no continuity within the project. It was a very difficult decision, but yes Buried Dreams ends here. The good news is that we will launch a new band with the same members - just with a new drummer. We will keep rocking on (laughs)! Musically, the new-name band, will follow the same path as before which is a natural evolution to Necrosphere, although we probably will be more straightforward. We will announce it once we have the new name and line-up. So you can expect more music from us soon.
METALLIAN: What specifically were the problems with your drummer?
DE YTA: The same as always, a lack of interest in the band. When he first joined us and knew about the recording of the album and the trip to Sweden he came and constantly rehearsed. He had no problems with that. We were happy with his work and he was into it, although there was the detail that that he didn't wanted to play any of the previous material. At that time it wasn't that important because we focused on the new stuff. After the recording though it became important for us that he begin playing our old stuff as well, but he didn't want to. He would find any excuse not to do it and then he started missing rehearsals. We had many discussions with him about that, so we came to a point were we had to do something. We had to fire him. We don't want lazy people to stop us. Now we are looking for a replacement, but this time we will be more careful with the recruitment.
METALLIAN: More importantly, unless the last drummer owned the band's name, it is difficult to understand why you would change the moniker if the style will remain the same - just as Buried Dreams was beginning to gain momentum.
DE YTA: Yes, I know. It is a hard decision. We own the name, but we have come to a point where changes have to be made. It's our third album and we have changed the line-up with every album. In a way it has affected the bands sound. We now know exactly what we want and how we want it to sound. I think it's a good time to make that kind of a decision. The name Buried Dreams is very important for us, but we are not afraid of change. I mean changing the name doesn't mean that we want to deny our past or forget it: never! We have learned so much in these years and we appreciate all the support from the fans, fanzines and the label. One thing is sure, we won't let them down! We will continue making aggressive and heavy music. We will have to launch a great promotional campaign so that everybody that knows us, knows about the name change. It's a big risk, but we will take it! We will keep burying our dreams!
METALLIAN: In which order did you use the Darkgate, Blackfire and Abismo monikers?
DE YTA: Darkgate was the first name of the band. That is when we had our first drummer. I don't really remember when we stopped using it. Then when we were looking for a new drummer we said, 'OK, let's use Blackfire instead,' but we used that name probably only for several weeks until we found the new drummer who wanted to use a Spanish word. As such we came up with Abismo, which means Abyss, but as soon as the other guy jammed with us we decided to look for another name. Which is when we switched to Buried Dreams.
METALLIAN: You also once employed a keyboardist! Why?
DE YTA: Yes, on our first two albums we used keyboards, but then after the tour for Perceptions we fired Ivan because he wasn't one hundred-percent into what we were doing. We were looking for a replacement, but when we started writing the new song we noticed that we didn't need keyboards. We decided to go on like that. We just used them in one song on that album and the bass player recorded them so it wasn't a problem.
Ivan is finishing his studies right now, he is still a very good friend of ours, but he is not playing music anymore.
METALLIAN: Was your former name inspired by Carcass? I ask because the choice is an odd one given your sound.
DE YTA: This is something strange, as we really didn't take the name from the Carcass song you mention. We had a song called Shining On Your Dreams which had very deep lyrics. We liked the song a lot and when we were discussing the band's name we came up with many options but none of them were totally convincing. So we then started deriving names from our song names. We mixed dreams with many words and the bass player came up with Buried Dreams which we liked a lot. We didn't have Carcass in mind, but we then realized the similarity which wasn't a problem for us. We decided to keep the name. Later when we were thinking about a bonus track for the Perception album we thought it was a good idea to cover that song in honour of the name!
METALLIAN: You came close to, but didn't quite explain how exactly you got signed to Oz Productions. Were there other offers?
DE YTA: It all stemmed from the aforementioned contest. The prize was a record deal with a label called Denver Records. The label was a cheesy one though. The bands on the label were in other directions and we didn't want to be on the roster. So we went to the guys from Oz Productions, gave them our demo and talked with them about the contest. They checked out a rehearsal of ours and liked the songs. They first wanted us to record a split-album with another band called Dies Irea, but then realized it was better to record a full-length for each one, so that's how the deal came about. We didn't receive any other offers.
METALLIAN: Incidentally, You also work at Oz's office.
DE YTA: After they signed us I had much contact with them. At the time I started doing web design so I asked them if they wanted me to create a web site for them. I started working as a webmaster for them, then I worked several months at their record store which I didn't like that much. I kept working as a webmaster, then worked on the catalogue which was later on transformed into a magazine. Nowadays I am the editor of Oz Mag. which has become very successful. Now I am interested in producing bands, but I don't know if I have the time for that - maybe later on, who knows? I like to be involved in all of this and it has helped me to connect with people from other countries. I have learnt a lot about the music business.
METALLIAN: A question with a larger perspective, how is life in Mexico? How do you find the nuances of the country?
DE YTA: Another hard question I can say that life in this country is very hard - economically this is a very poor land with many problems everywhere: pollution, insecurity, bad nutrition and scarcity of opportunities. Politically this land is full of corruption and existed 70 years under the same political party which lead to the present situation. In the last 5 years things have changed a little bit politically and things seems to be getting better, but it's impossible to change 70 years of misdirected actions overnight.
Life is hard, there are not many work opportunities, so people have to come up with many different works. You see many people in the streets selling gum, washing car windows, spitting fire, or just begging for money. It is very sad to see that. Now imagine starting a metal band! You need a lot of money to buy instruments, amps and so on and of course you can not live off playing in a band. You have to look for other jobs. If you compare this with Sweden, for example, where the government pays you to study music and where the musicians can afford the instruments and get a rehearsal place at local schools and where they can make music all day long without worrying about the money, then you can understand why there are so many bands coming from there. So generally I can say life is not easy, but if you work hard you can have a good life. I believe that if you want to do something in your life you must follow your dreams and work hard for them. The vision I gave you seems very chaotic, but there are also many positive sides to this country like cultural works, very nice places, very friendly people and, well, I believe things will get better in the coming years.
METALLIAN: Thank you for expounding on how you view Mexico. Having said that how do you believe the country is seen from the outside?
DE YTA: I think some years ago nobody really had an idea about the Mexican scene. I think our country was famous for the great, wild and crazy audience at concerts for foreign bands. European bands were amazed when they played here. Bands like Hypocrisy, Tiamat, Pyogenesis, Unleashed, Entombed and so onÅ but no one cared for Mexican bands. There were some acts doing respectable stuff, the most famous were Shub Niggurath and Cenotaph, but that was all. I think that nowadays things have started to change a little bit. We have opened the doors. Since recording Perceptions in Sweden, more bands have decided to record abroad. There's Dies Irae, Cenotaph and now Delirium and there are other bands that have gotten a deal from none-Mexican record labels like Ravager and Disgorge. Some bands have played in Europe so people are starting to realize that we also have a metal scene in Mexico. I hope this will keep getting better!
METALLIAN: In the same context, and taking my cue from what you just said, what is it like being a metal band in Mexico?
DE YTA: As I said it's very hard and as a consequence of all the economical problems it's almost impossible for a scene to develop in this country. The bands can't afford a rehearsal place or instruments, promoters don't have the money for a backline or a good PA and there are always problems with the government when giving concerts because of taxes and lots of other bullshit.
Then people don't have money to buy records and attend concerts. The scene that has survived for so many years has survived thanks to the people who love metal and will do whatever it takes to keep it going. So I can tell you that any band that can release an album has worked a lot for it. It's not impossible, but yes you have to fight against many barriers to survive!
METALLIAN: Can you describe each of your albums and also comment on each album title and its corresponding cover art.
DE YTA: Let's begin with Beyond Your Mind. It was the first album and was recorded in five days in Guadalajara, Mexico. We had no studio experience, so the sound doesn't help much. The guitars were recorded directly to the console. The songs are not very complicated but are very long. There are not many arrangements because of the lack of time. The original cover art idea was a painting with the mask that was used on Perceptions, but the colours were too similar to another release of Oz's so we had to change it and there wasn't much time to do so. The one we used was a picture taken from a magazine and mixed with some effects by a Russian guy who worked here in Mexico.
The re-issue is just the book that appeared on the cover, but with a better computer composition made by myself. The title was taken from the song of the same name. We thought it combines very well with the cover and the lyrics for the whole album. It's an interesting one.
Perceptions was recorded and mixed in ten days at Studio Fredman in Sweden. We learnt a lot from this recording and from Fredrik. This album sounds very different musically compared to the first one due to all the lineup changes. This one is more in the death metal vein and the first one more in the doom metal direction. On this album the guitars are much much better composition and sound-wise. The songs have many arrangements and the structure of the songs is complicated. There are many rhythm changes all the way, without following a certain pattern. So you have to listen it many times before understanding it well. We recorded all vocals in 24 hours. For the cover we took many photographs of different elements and mixed them. We wanted it to be very colourful and we did use the mask as the central part of the cover. This mask represents the duality of life and death and has to do with the theory and philosophy of the Aztecs. I did the cover and the central painting and another friend did the rest of the layout. We wanted the title to be just one word and that it represents the whole concept. So the main point had to do a lot with feelings and how we see life and how it was seen by our ancestors. Perceptions described that very well.
Our latest album is Necrosphere. This is a step beyond Perceptions musically as it's a maturer album. There are not so many changes, but it is still very dynamic. This time we had an idea better what we wanted to sound like. The guitars solos are much better planned and executed and the riffs are more straightforward. We had more time to record the vocals so we could play more with the dubbing and different sounds. We recorded and mixed it in a fortnight. It was a great experience because Dark Tranquillity was recording at the same time. I see this album as an evolution of Perceptions, but the sound changed due to the different style of the drummers. The main theme of the album was death in many different visions, Aztec Rituals, mental sickness, vampire, biological diseases and so on. The main idea behind the cover was to represent that. So to consider the moon from Jupiter, which is the most volcanic active place in our solar system, was a good idea. It is a place where life is impossible and very chaotic. I made some sketches and a friend developed the idea for the final cover. I did the rest of the artwork which was only for the digipack edition.
METALLIAN: Necrosphere landed the title of Album Of The Month at Metallian Towers!
DE YTA: It was something very cool for us! This meant that we were able to transmit our feelings via our music to other people and that they enjoyed it. When someone outside the circle of your friends or family tells you something like that it is an honest opinion. I liked the way you contrasted us from the Gothenburg Scene because some people have told us that we sound a lot like one or another band, but I think we have our own sound. It is very funny how when you ask people their opinion on your music, some tell you you sound like death metal, others black, others doom and then they compare you to one band or another that we think we have nothing to do with. I really don't like comparisons, but in a way it helps you to know where you stand in the scene and, well, I was surprised when I found out that we were the album of the month on Metallian.com! Thanks for that!
This means also that we have to work harder for the next album.
METALLIAN: You are presumably referring to the phrase, Buried Dreams "makes Gothenburg an image in the rear view mirror."
DE YTA: I thank you for that statement! We can't deny the influence of the Gothenburg bands. We like bands like In Flames, At The Gates and Dark Tranquillity a lot, but those are not our only influence. Some people maintain that we are a copy of those bands, but honestly I don't see it like that. Sure we use some rhythms or structures that they have used, but as I told you before I think we have created our own sound now. Furthermore it's great to hear your opinion on that, because I think that a European magazine would never accept a statement like that. That is that a band from a third world country surpassing bands from Europe. They would prefer a band that makes a good copy of those bands rather than a Mexican band playing something different. I hope this changes with the time.
METALLIAN: Regarding your musical influences, it is explicit in your music that Sweden has had an influence on the band. Where does the band draw the line on being influenced as opposed to simply copying?
DE YTA: An interesting question, I think that when you copy something it's more than obvious. You take a riff or a part of it and play it in the same way in your song. If you listen to it, you can say this part is taken from that other song. Then there is another level in which you take a part and modify something. It may be the pitch, the tempo, the feel, whatever and sounds similar but not identical. This is where this line is drawn. Finally there's the influence where you don't take any specific riff or part, instead you apply the structure or rhythm or melody patterns to create something different. That's when I think people say, 'hey, this band sounds like Testament!' It is because of the general sound, like some have said that the last Darkane album is like Testament, but if you try to find a part that is exactly like Testament's I don't think you will succeed. It's not that easy to separate a copy from just an influence sometimes. You can learn much from playing other bands stuff, but if you try to sell that as your own music, then that's bullshit!
METALLIAN: The album also delves into what I called "jazz fusion." What are you looking to convey with that?
DE YTA: It's a good grasp, we have used several parts with different rhythms not used much in metal and I think that gives our music a slightly jazzy touch. We think that this makes for a good contrast in the songs and helps them be more dynamic. We like jazzy stuff, but we are not too into it. It's just another influence for us, we don't want to prove anything. It's just something that we think sounds good.
METALLIAN: One would be hard-pressed to think of either too many Mexican bands which have recorded overseas or even played overseas. How did each of these opportunities develop and get realized?
DE YTA: Well, the idea for recording oversees came up when I called the studio in Mexico and asked for the rates. They seemed very high to me, so we started looking at the web pages of oversees studios where we found out that it costs almost the same to record here in Mexico as in Sweden! And the experience of the producers in Mexico for metal is almost nonexistent. We wanted to work with someone who knows this music very well, and who better than Fredrik Fredman in Sweden? So we started contacting the studios and talked it over with the label. They liked the idea so we just had to work very hard for the money for the trip - which we had to pay obviously! It was such a good experience that we wanted to do it again. We also wanted to give continuity to our sound so we used the studio again and for the next recording recording we will probably go there again!
As we were already in Europe we wanted to play there as well, but we only got one gig in Germany. I planned the second time almost six months before we left Mexico, but it was very hard to get in touch with promoters and as an unknown band it was very difficult to get into a tour as a support band. Still with the help of some friends we did a small tour together with Morning Caress which was great! People were surprised by our music - being from Mexico - and really banged along with us!
The Milwaukee Metal Fest was a great opportunity and the contact was made by Oz Productions. We had to pay for the trip but it was worth it. Something lucky happened on the way back to Mexico. The flight was oversold so they needed volunteers to change their flight to another day. As a result, we got paid for it in flight coupons with which we paid for our European trip to record Necrosphere! So thanks to American Airlines for that (laughs)!
And thanks to unnamed Swiss scientists, you can reach Buried Dreams through their home page at www.burieddreams.net.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY BURIED DREAMS 16.1.2003:
Yes it's true, Buried Dreams has come to an end! After seven years, three
album and lots of concerts, the band has decided to bury the name.
The good news is that a new band is being forged together with
ex-Cenotaph drummer Oscar Clorio (death metal pioneers in Mexico).
We came to a point where a big decision had to be made, we fought for a
long time for this name, but unexpected line-up changes always stopped
us from growing and having a serious continuity in the band. So with the
last departure things became critical... The choices were: to give up
and bury everything or start a new fresh project with new ideas and a
stable line-up. After some weeks of thinking it over, we have come to
the decision to start a new band, we talked with Oscar and he was very
enthusiastic in this new project, so we are working already on the new
songs so expect something soon... We want to thank all the people who
supported us during all this time and believed in our music!!! This new
band will not be a continuation of what we have done, it will be
something new... but expect something powerful and aggressive: with NO
REGRETS!!!"
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