Grave - As Rapture Comes
Century Media- CD 77611-2- 24/07/06
By Sam Brokenshaw
Now this is death metal done the way it was always intended, with a good dose of morbid, dank decay along with the usual scything guitars and pounding drums. Similarly to their countrymen Insision, Grave specialise in doing death metal the old fashioned way, but doing it so well that it really doesn't need any kind of progression or new elements to augment the classic formula. In the same way as Slayer will always pound out thrash riffs aplenty and thunder along in a belligerent fashion, Grave will always tear their way along with minimal fuss but maximum impact. A parallel can be drawn to Dismember, in that Grave went somewhat AWOL for a time before reappearing seemingly stronger than ever. As Rapture Comes kicks off with a quite frankly ball breakingly heavy number that goes by the name of "Burn". Everything you ever loved about dirty, smelly death metal is present in large amounts. The drums are right as hell and have the odd unusual flavour, from offbeat ride patterns to the standard "1-2-1-2!" pattern we all know and love.
Fast forward to track number nine and we come across the ace up Grave's collective sleeve, coming at you in the shape of a cover of the Alice In Chains classic "Them Bones". You can pretty much imagine exactly what they've done to it without having to hear it, but suffice to say it's a very fun ride. Somehow the song really works as a death metal piece, and the vocalist achieves the state of awesome when he hits that "Them boooones!" line. All in all, this is really nothing new, but then it was never meant to be. It's an exercise in doing death metal the way it was originally intended, with competence and enough memorable riffs to make it worthy of your hard earned dollars.
8/10
UM’s Review Rating Scale
Official Grave Website
Official Century Media Website
Century Media- CD 77611-2- 24/07/06
By Sam Brokenshaw
Now this is death metal done the way it was always intended, with a good dose of morbid, dank decay along with the usual scything guitars and pounding drums. Similarly to their countrymen Insision, Grave specialise in doing death metal the old fashioned way, but doing it so well that it really doesn't need any kind of progression or new elements to augment the classic formula. In the same way as Slayer will always pound out thrash riffs aplenty and thunder along in a belligerent fashion, Grave will always tear their way along with minimal fuss but maximum impact. A parallel can be drawn to Dismember, in that Grave went somewhat AWOL for a time before reappearing seemingly stronger than ever. As Rapture Comes kicks off with a quite frankly ball breakingly heavy number that goes by the name of "Burn". Everything you ever loved about dirty, smelly death metal is present in large amounts. The drums are right as hell and have the odd unusual flavour, from offbeat ride patterns to the standard "1-2-1-2!" pattern we all know and love.
Fast forward to track number nine and we come across the ace up Grave's collective sleeve, coming at you in the shape of a cover of the Alice In Chains classic "Them Bones". You can pretty much imagine exactly what they've done to it without having to hear it, but suffice to say it's a very fun ride. Somehow the song really works as a death metal piece, and the vocalist achieves the state of awesome when he hits that "Them boooones!" line. All in all, this is really nothing new, but then it was never meant to be. It's an exercise in doing death metal the way it was originally intended, with competence and enough memorable riffs to make it worthy of your hard earned dollars.
8/10
UM’s Review Rating Scale
Official Grave Website
Official Century Media Website
