The best representation of who we are

Hello, And thank you for taking the time to participate in an interview with Metal On Loud Magazine. How are you today?

I’m doing excellent how are you? Thanks for having us its a pleasure to do this.

Please present yourself and your band members.

I am Ben Lalik and I play drums, guitar and do some vocals; theres also Tyler who plays guitar and does vocals (clean and harsh), Quincy who plays guitar and Matt who yells at things.

Let’s discuss the band, Above This Burning Sky , Where you got the idea to start it?

I filled in for Tyler’s old band and a couple months later I hit him up and asked if I could join and he said the band was breaking up and that we should start one and here we are 4 years later.

Your most recent release is Somnium Bellum , what will we find inside of it? Where you got the name for it?

On Somnium Bellum you will find a wide array of metal varying from thrash to death and pretty much all types of metal in-between with a general metalcore sound. We definitely try to switch it up and make each song unique but the album is conceptual as well as gapless so there is still continuity between the songs. The name is Latin and translates to “dream war” I’ll explain the concept behind it later.

What are your future plans? Where are you planning to head with your music?

currently we are working on a new album which we do not have a title for yet. It is another concept album, which is loosely based on the events going on in the world today, that we’re about halfway done writing. Due to our work and school schedules we will most likely have to wait until the summer to record the new album.

What is your inspiration as a band? Where you got the idea for the music?

As a band we do not try to emulate any sound but rather we try to just take all of our individual music and try and come up with the best representation of who we are. Between the Buried and Me is a huge influence on me personally as well as several others in the band and they definitely have the most influence on our music but we all like and listen to all kinds of music from Metallica to Cannibal Corpse to NWA to Kid Cudi to Red Hot Chili Peppers and everything in-between. Honestly we just try to be ourselves in our music.

Somnium Bellum is a concept album. What is the concept? Where you got this idea?

Ok so Somnium Bellum is a story about a boy who is lonely, depressed, gets picked on in school and just believes that he is worthless so he decides to try to kill himself and in trying he is sent into a coma. In his comatose state, his mind recreates him in an apocalyptic future where a group is trying to take over the world and bring about the apocalypse. The main character (Donald) eventually starts up a militia to combat this group and eventually he conquers the group, the leaders of which are the people that have negatively affected him the most. At the end of the album Donald awakens from his coma for just a moment, only to die.


Please recommend some music for the readers.

Definitely Between the Buried and Me’s new album Coma Ecliptic. I actually just saw them last night and two of the bands that opened for them were awesome and worth checking out: Native Construct and Intronaut. Theres also a band called Haken that is amazing, they’re like a mix of Between the Buried and Me with Queen. Specifically the album “The Mountain”

Anything you might want to add up , some last words for the fans?

We are taking our time with this new album to make sure it comes out exactly how we want it. It is unfortunate that we all have jobs and go to school but we will never give up on making music. This is the most important thing in the world to us and if you listen just know we love you.


Thank you for your time, and best wishers for you!

Thanks for having us! You as well.