I’m sitting in front of a wall of plastic warriors — battle-scarred Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, steroid-jacked Masters of the Universe, and weathered Star Wars relics from a galaxy far, far away — when Monte Cimino’s face flickers onto my screen. Behind him? A cathedral of sound: towers of CDs and records, shimmering under the warm, low light like an altar to every note ever pressed.
This isn’t your average “how’s the album going?” conversation. This is an exchange between two absolute lifers — him with his vinyl vault, me with my toy armory — trading battle stories across the cultural trenches.
Monte’s resurrected Burial Tree after over a decade in the crypt, and he’s come back swinging with The Power of Myth — a three-track, 37-minute slab of sludge-jazz-ambient chaos that moves like a fever dream through collapsing temples and neon wastelands. He didn’t do it alone, either. He’s flanked by a lineup that would make any avant-metal freak weep into their tour laminate: Bill Laswell bending the bass into dark geometry, Peter Apfelbaum blaring sax and megaphone incantations, and Dave Lombardo — yes, that Lombardo — pounding drums like a ritual to wake dead gods.
We talk about all of it. The joy of making something purely for the sake of creation. The strange overlap between obsessive music collecting and obsessive world-building. The love of early Nick Cave — all teeth, danger, and apocalyptic romance — bleeding into the cinematic sprawl of The Power of Myth.
This isn’t background music. This is an album you submit to. The kind you light candles for, pour a drink for, and let it pull you under. Monte builds soundscapes that feel like wandering through an abandoned palace where every room is haunted by a different ghost.
When the interview ends, I’m still staring at my screen, surrounded by grinning turtles, skeletal warriors, and dusty stormtroopers. Somewhere in California, Monte’s probably flipping a record and queuing up another drink. And between us, a silent agreement: we’re not here to dabble. We’re here to live in it.
This is gospel.
I bite crowd surfers.
killer.
