BACKYARD BURIAL was formed in Lower Hutt New Zealand in early 1998 by drummer Mike and high school friend Dave on guitar, soon adding vocalist Matt, and Ryan on bass.
By the end of 1998 Dave had left for Australia and Ryan shifted to guitar, and the trio went into C Moore Sounds recording studio to record a six song demo 'Deviance in Society' of which only a few copies were made.
In mid 1999 they were joined by Nathan on bass for their first gig at the Wellington Punkfest. Soon a new bass player Aiden was added, allowing Nathan to switch to his main instrument guitar and the band to finally develop the enormous low tuned chug that has become their trademark.
In April 2001 after several successful shows in Auckland and Wellington, Backyard Burial traveled to Rockbottom Studios in Auckland to record some newer songs. Produced by Nich Cunningham, the infamous '$2 PE-E.P.' is a good representation of the Backyard sound, and has had frequent airplay on Metal radio shows throughout New Zealand. By now the band were regularly playing larger gigs with touring bands and in late 2001 supported Misery from Melbourne, Australia. The release of the EP shortly after this also coincided with the bands first tour, playing three dates in North Island cities Auckland, Hamilton and New Plymouth.
In early 2002 Aiden left, and now locked into the two guitar sound the band were forced to find a new bass player. They recruited Greg formerly of Lower Hutt band Discenter, who quickly picked up the reins and the band returned to Auckland to record nine new songs, again with Nich Cunningham at Rockbottom. But back in Wellington Greg revealed his plans to go overseas, so once more faced with the prospect of finding a bass player, and with the new recording still incomplete, Nathan
moved to Auckland, leaving further roles to fill. Determined to continue at least long enough to release the new CD, Ryan began teaching songs to guitarist Mark from Lower Hutt band Abracadaver and bassist Jason from Wellington Tech Death band Falciform, who had toured with Backyard Burial. After a few practices the new band was ready, and triumphantly returned to perform some fucking killer shows in Auckland and Wellington with a brand new CD 'Repeat Offender'.
After constant gigging throughout New Zealand, including support for Pungent Stench from Austria and Deeds of Flesh from the USA, the band released the CD Hedonistic Cravings' in February 2005, and headlined An Audience With The Devil 2005 in Auckland.
In mid 2005 guitarist Mark was replaced by Alex, as the band continued to headline shows around New Zealand, including Satanfest in Christchurch and Auckland Undergound Fest, and a North Island tour with Australian grind legends Blood Duster.
Following these gigs Backyard Burial returned to the Kenepuru lab to lay down tracks for a single entitled ‘A Promising Young Law Student’ which featured on the AK Underground Fest compilation release. This was an exercise in self-recording, making use of collective skills to record/produce the song, and to this date is the most accurate representation of Backyard’s live sound which is yet to be captured through recording.
More recently the band has made the collective decision to part ways with long standing bass monster Jason, and have since recruited George (AKA Gary Glitter) as their new low-end spray attack instrument.
Since George’s recruitment Backyard have been upping the anti in attempts to write a new and more diverse catalogue of music for the next recording, as well as focusing on getting up to speed with the lineup change. New album material will be completed this year.
Latest gigs on the Backyard list are with the sick cunts of Blood Duster in June and September saw the band playing with grindcore godfathers Napalm Death, without whom this band may never have come to exist.
Over the holiday period 2007 - 2008 the sickos concentrated on writing a few more songs, then refined them and chose ten tracks worthy enough to record for their debut album. Utilizing the talents of ex-guitarist Nathan to record the ten tracks of mental instability, the band then decided to hand the mixing and mastering duties over to Australian legend Jason "PC" Fuller, who completed an excellent job and showed considerable skill in achieving a production that truly represents the improved diversity of Backyard Burials music. The album is aptly named "Symptoms of Psychopathology" and will be available July 2009. CD release gigs will be scheduled shortly.
2009 also saw long-standing guitarist Gurney Sprayer leave the band and depart for Australia, now playing bass in Odius Embowel. A new guitarist was recruited to appear in the guise of one of New Zealand's worst offenders: Joseph Thompson who has since played a number of gigs to complete the initiation.
After recently returning to Auckland to once again play at An Audience With The Devil and playing in Christchurch at the Southern Grindfest, Backyard have parted ways with bassist George and have been training Boyd (ex Scoria) in the ways of the apprentice rapist in the hope that he will take over this role within the band. Upcoming for Backyard is FINALLY writing a couple of new songs to put on a split with the sickest band in the South Island due to burst through into reality sometime in 2010, and hopefully a New Zealand tour Summer 2010.
