What The Jackals of the Media Say:
“Whether it’s Mathias Kom on his own or backed by 13 stellar musicians animating his quirky, sardonic, parlour pop, Peterborough’s The Burning Hell put on an incredible live show. A harbinger of wonderful performances to come, Happy Birthday is generally inward and comically morbid. It’s more “classy circus” than “cheap funeral” though, with deceptively jaunty arrangements and skewed perspectives on life and love. The Burning Hell’s people’s folk music is familiar but there’s something lively and unique coursing through Kom’s songs.”
EYE Weekly, March 5 2008
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“Happy Birthday is a perfect balance of mirth and the morbid…every song here announces Kom as one of the finest new songwriters in Canada.”
Guelph Mercury, Jan. ’08
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“Moments of macabre comedy weave their way in and out of nearly every song on Happy Birthday… the kind of album we’ll be throwing on the stereo as the end times draw near and we crowd into our bomb shelters to eat granola bars and have a good laugh over everything that’s gone wrong with the world.”
ChartAttack, Jan. ’08
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“Don’t let Mathias Kom’s doomy Leonard Cohen baritone or the brooding, skeletal folk arrangements upon which he tends to hang his words fool you – the guy’s actually pretty funny. The Burning Hell’s latest album, Happy Birthday, is veritably overflowing with black wit and cracked genius.”
Toronto Star, Jan. ’08
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“Revolutionary… The Burning Hell makes me want to tear down large statues of myself in public squares – and replace them with even larger ones!”
rockenspiel! formed on new years eve, 2007, in an abandoned apartment in downtown peterborough, ontario. they have since grown smaller and louder.