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German hard rock band Buried in Smoke has origins in Hanau, just outside of Frankfurt, forming back in 2014 with Tony Vee on vocals, Tim Ortel on drums, adding Matze Ludwig on bass in 2017 and Ivan Esposito "Meusa" on guitar more recently in 2021. The four-piece follows up 2016 debut Tales From The Bermuda with sophomore album Cooperate Identities taking on a variety of rock subgenres, to be released later in 2022.

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Work on the second album began in 2019, with Buried in Smoke gigging all over Germany into early 2020 all over Munich, Frankfurt, Hanover and more, including Munich's Free & Easy Festival. 2019 was a major breakthrough year, headlining shows with 700 in attendance, winning a contest again hundreds of bands and honing their musicality as a unit while on tour.

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Buried in Smoke's musical stylings are varied, tapping into metal, hard rock, grunge and more and though they don't take themselves too seriously on stage, their music certainly has a message. Like on new tune "Hijab Woman" for instance.

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"I'm pretty proud of us writing the song", said Tony Vee. "It's because we have a lot of controversy with a lot of right wing/Islamaphobic people running around here, and though we are not too politically involved I felt like we should address it". The angry yet emotional song illustrates a girl in a family that is fundamentally Muslim that doesn't like her loving hard rock music while the people in the hard rock scene do not necessarily accept her. "She is like the personification of rock & roll", added Vee. The dramatic song represents that feeling of not fitting in, but finding your community that accepts you and how there is still more that can be done to be inclusive in society.

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The concept around album Cooperate Identities arrived from Tony Vee's first-hand experience years back as a booking agent, after having a discussion with his boss about their former album."It sounded like he wanted us to have a corporate identity", said Matze Ludwig.

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"It was a sign to me a band needs to have a sound, a vision and an idea on what they're about, but we can't be everything and be everything", said Vee. "A band must have some kind of corporate identity, I get that, but that can also lead to a band sounding boring. We have a recipe but we are not trying to have it consciously".

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The band's core is hard rock, but on songs like "Mamajuana", they offer elements of rap rock, punk and alternative rock, while on "Better Life", Buried in Smoke deliver a metal anthem and on "Black & White" the band cements their hearts on the rock ballad. Whatever the sound or variation, the guys are having a blast creating melodies, writing witty lyrics or lighting up toilets on stage. That's right, Buried in Smoke are known for some animated antics under the spotlight, including their signature smoking toilet (affectionately named K-Lo, German slang for toilet), which they all stand up on with pride during performances.

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In spring 2020 after about two mo