A Pennsylvania band that was dead and buried – pardon the wordplay – is back with new music and a gig this Saturday at a benefit that is bringing together some of the PA hardcore scene’s central figures.
Burial Ground is among the living again and will perform on Saturday at Hardcore for Husvar 2. Guitarist Brian Quinn, who formed the band with Jamie White in Pittston, has rejoined the group after not being able to make it to last year’s benefit, which is named for Neil Husvar, the Side Over bassist who died by suicide last year. White died in 2003.
“It seems like the only time we’re getting together is kind of for a sad reason, because Neil’s such a good dude and just the circumstances were extremely unfortunate and said,” says Quinn, who has been living and working in the Philadelphia area since attending college there.
Quinn joins the version of the band that worked together in 2004: vocalist Steve Option and members from the 1997 lineup, guitarist Dave Gruber, bassist Erik Anderson and drummer/percussionist/vocalist Tommy “Tyrant” Lin.
Quinn says his friend James Callahan let him know that Burial Ground was showing signs of life, and later that day he heard from Gruber, who invited him to get involved with the reborn group’s new material. Quinn ended up recording his parts remotely for what became the EP “Ashes from the Human Flame,” released last month. It was the first time he had recorded with Burial Ground since 1996.
He was especially drawn to the new material because of how heavy it was, as it is a departure from the music he has played in his other projects, including the Seattle alt rock/grunge band Candlebox, which he was a member of for a decade until it recently reunited its original lineup.
“I’m a huge Slayer guy,” Quinn says, “and the reason Jamie and I started the band was because at the time we were listening to a lot of Obituary, Death, Morbid Angel, their album ‘Covenant’ had just been out. And obviously we’re big Slayer guys and the entire nucleus of why Jamie and I wanted to do something heavy was because of Black Sabbath.”
Playing the style of music that Burial Ground pioneered, which became known as “bloodcore,” brought Quinn back to those early days, even though he was not in the same room as the other musicians. “Yeah, I’m right back in it,” he says. “I’m right back in that garage in Pittston in 1992.”
The EP consists of two new songs and two from the past, including “Forever Friends,” which White and Quinn wrote together in the ‘90s. It was only performed live once, and White’s vocals were pulled from a recording of that appearance for the version on the EP.
Looking back on White’s life and untimely death, Quinn notes that the singer “had been struggling with addiction for many years.”
“Burial Ground was kind of his outlet to get away from all that and write about it, which he did quite a bit. A lot of our songs were about that, like recovery and rebirth and the whole Phoenix Rising type thing. I guess I kind of lost touch with him after I left the band in ’97. We talked maybe around 2000, like we would stay in touch here and there, but I pretty much lost touch with him.”
Another fallen friend from the hardcore scene who will be on Quinn’s mind at the benefit show is Tommy Wynder, the drummer from Pittston who played in Option. Wynder died in 2018.
“He was one of my best friends. Me, him and [fellow guitarist] Tony Scaltz were inseparable. Me and Tommy spent so many of those summer days up in his attic at his house, because he had his drum set up there. We played together in Flux for a little while, kind of prior to Burial Ground getting there. But I mean, we were teenagers. He is probably the most singular, pure savant-type talent I’ve ever heard in my life, as a drummer.”
While bands like Burial Ground were part of a tight-knit, regional scene, they did tour and swap shows with bands from outside the area coming to the region. Quinn remembers a particular show where Hatebreed, which would go on to massive success, opened for Burial Ground in northeastern PA.
“And any of the shows we did with VOD [Vision Of Disorder] were just always kind of crazy. And I always think back about the Edwardsville hose company shows. They were awesome. And just like, there were adults that were willing to let us have places to hold these shows, which was kind of cool. But yeah, I just remember it was a lot of camaraderie. Everybody, for the most part, was cool. Every once in a while you get some knuckleheads that would come to the shows and try to cause trouble just to cause trouble. But for the most part, it was a really tight-knit scene and everybody really supported one another.”
Hardcore 4 Husvar 2, featuring Judge, Burial Ground, Side Over, Human Animal, Controller, Rabid Shaft Badgers, Joystick Fury and Still Won’t Break. Saturday, July 25, 2026, 4 p.m. St. Mary’s Center, 320 Mifflin Ave, Scranton, PA 18503. $25 in advance, $30 at the door. More info here.
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