With each passing year and every album, The Burning Hell expands and contracts, seeking new collaborators and different sounds to bring their songs to life. Mathias and Ariel, touring as a duo and focusing on intimate performances that highlight the storytelling and lyricism at the heart of their music, return to The Carleton on Sunday, February 22nd when they’ll be revisiting some older material from their previous albums, and debuting some new work to be recorded later in the year. Show time is 7 PM and tickets are $25 + HST.

The Burning Hell is the ongoing musical project of songwriter Mathias Kom and multi-instrumentalist Ariel Sharratt, often including additional collaborators. Their narrative-driven songs are packed with an abundance of literary, historical, and pop-cultural subjects, incorporating a frequent fixation on apocalypse and ruin into work that celebrates participation in a mutually created, ever surprising, and even occasionally beautiful world.

Based in the woods of rural Prince Edward Island, The Burning Hell emphasizes presence and connection, affirming a commitment to the political power of sharing music. ‘Ghost Palace,’ their newest album, was released on March 7, 2025 on You’ve Changed Records in North America and BB*Island everywhere else.

When Mathias and Ariel aren’t on the road or in the studio with the band, they pursue art projects at the intersection of ecology and sound with their collective Idlefield Art Lab. Recent ventures have included mobile, solar-powered recording studios in Scotland and Canada, and off-grid recording projects in abandoned farms and lighthouses.

**** “…funny, sardonic, and literate. Add in a new-wavey, Loaded-era Velvet Underground sensibility, and it’s impossible not to be swayed by these acerbically funny story songs.”  MOJO MAGAZINE

“…super literate and fantastically droll, over backings that range from bubbling synth pop and acoustic folk to rattly punk and even a spot of semi-calypso. Silver Jews and Jeffrey Lewis spring to mind on the terrific ‘Birdwatching’; ‘Bird Queen of Garbage Island’ sounds like a glorious revival of Tom Tom Club.” UNCUT MAGAZINE

9/10 “Maybe The Burning Hell won’t be for everyone – I don’t think they’d even want to be for everyone – but if you like brilliant, thought-provoking lyrics, superb musicianship and killer tunes, you know what… you might just love this too.” AMERICANA UK