Unconsecrated - Awakening in the Cemetery Grave

UNCONSECRATED - Awakening in the Cemetery Grave (CHAOS Records - CD 2012)

Not just the old bands with their cult recordings get compilation releases, but also newer acts have their songs compiled into the a single CD / LP. In case of Unconsecrated it might be slightly weird, as all the band’s recordings are still available here and there, so I don’t really understand why did they decide to release “Awakening in the Cemetery Grave”, but who cares… I actually am quite happy about it, as I never had a chance to listen to Unconsecrated before, but was told several times that it is a good Spanish band and if I like Graveyard, then I also should check them out. Well, honestly I didn’t bother so much at first, but once I saw that this compilation is out – and it collects all the songs, which Unconsecrated had recorded – then I thought “why not?? Let’s give them a try” and purchased a CD. Well, I must say that I do not regret that, as the music is really cool. And also I really like the way “Awakening in the Cemetery Grave” has been released. I mean the front artwork from one of the main artists of the old school death metal of the present, Mr. Daniel Devilish, looks just stunning, it is superb vision of the dead walking around in the moonlight in hunger for fresh flesh and blood. Definitely this artwork is one of the best I have ever seen (the LP should look AMAZING!) plus I must also add that Unconsecrated logo is also one of the best I have ever seen. Already that makes me like this band hehe. But the booklet has obviously all the details for each recording, which “Awakening in the Cemetery Grave” compiles, plus the original artworks, lyrics. Yeah, Chaos Records did good job with the whole stuff and I am glad that they didn’t make it look like Entrapment’s “Irreligious Abominations” or Torture Division CDs – which have very simple and basic layout, without any extras or whatsoever. Luckily it’s not the case with “Awakening in the Cemetery Grave”.

Unconsecrated has so far released three materials: "Slave to the Grave" (EP 2010), "Dark Awakening" (Demo 2007) and "Unconsecrated Cemetery" (Demo 2006). In total there’s 73 minutes of music! Style wise it is old styled death metal and one of the songs is titled “Recremated by the Sunlight” hehe. Does that give you some clues? Yeah, the two most recent releases sound quite Swedish, but also have many old school US and British death metal influences around, what is normal I guess. Only the first demo sounds slightly different, it definitely is least exciting and sometimes even boring, if I can say so. They (the band) were more like a simple US / Dutch / UK oriented death metal in the old vein, but something doesn’t click on this demo. "Unconsecrated Cemetery" at times sounds just dull and I don’t like the drum machine from it, which gives the whole recording very homemade sound, which is not a problem, but with those guitars and drum machine it hasn’t got any energy, aggression and the feeling of actual band playing, there’s nothing organic about it. The vocals also were not the best, I must say. The demo contains eight songs recorded, so quite many and I didn’t like it so much, but generally the songwriting is not terrible. One can listen to it, but without much enthusiasm. And the Unleashed cover was done very well.

“Dark Awakening” demo is better to my taste. It has much more dirty and rawer sound, but more powerful and energetic and one, which actually is quite organic. It reminds me a good US death metal band, almost Autopsy in many ways. Also, if you hear the opening riff for “Path of the Ancient Gods” then you’ll also realize that Unconsecrated must have been really influenced by Autopsy and early Death a lot. Anyways the demo is good. It has six tracks and each is just a fundamental old styled death metal and you’ll definitely like it, if you like this sort of playing. I’m glad to say that everything what I didn’t like on "Unconsecrated Cemetery" has been improved on “Dark Awakening” and that means not just the production and the music, but also the vocals, which are harsh and good growls as I like (only they were still using the programmed drums, but they sound not so bad here!)! Sure, one may say that comparing this stuff to some of the releases from other bands it may sound slightly mediocre, but it doesn’t mean that it is weak. Definitely Unconsecrated did a good job for this demo. There are few killer riffs or fragments and as overall I liked it. But it’s not my favourite of all Unconsecrated’s outputs.

It’s the "Slave to the Grave" EP, which I like most. Unconsecrated got really great sound on it, one which is actually very Swedish and can be compared to such Swedish bands as Facebreaker, Tormented, Entrails, Paganizer, etc, but also the music, which Unconsecrated has composed for this EP is totally Swedish sounding, but that is not a problem, as they (the band) have done very good job here. I like the songwriting, each track is just killer and also the vocals are really, really good. I can definitely say that the Spanish band has been progressing a lot since the first demo and their music was constantly changing, but went in good direction, I think. It gets better and better and more lethal than before, so what else can you wish for?

At the moment I can see that Unconsecrated is on hold, which is sad news, but I hope that it won’t be for long and whatever reasons have pushed the band members to stop their activity will end and that the band will come back soon. Definitely such recordings, as those, which are on “Awakening in the Cemetery Grave” make me hungry for more and prove that it was a very good band. Come on then, cabrones, get to work!!!!!!

Final rate: 70/100