Grond - Cosmic Devonian

GROND - Cosmic Devonian (ANCIENT DARKNESS Productions CD 2016)

Look out, here’s another really cool Russian band! Grond are from Moscow and damn, I really like this EP called “Cosmic Devonian”, which Ancient Darkness Productions released a while ago. For me this was the first time I had a chance to hear Grond music, but as they say it’s better late than never. Sadly, “Cosmic Devonian” is a short release, with four songs only (one of which is Possessed cover). But it’s enough to convince me about the quality of their music and definitely I will grab a copy of their upcoming “Worship the Kraken” album as well.

Style wise, Grond presents us very traditional and common death metal, which I think is very European sounding, with strong emphasis on British death metal style of bands like Benediction and Bolt Thrower, spiced up with a bit of the crushing heaviness, which can remind you Grave or Vomitory. Most of the music is slow or mid paced, only sometimes Grond fastens up, but that slower tempo I think underlines the old school feeling and heaviness of the music. There are some really awesome riffs, some nice guitar harmonies thrown between heavy guitar riffage, some good ideas and arrangements – like in “Japetus - the Ice Gate”, which is definitely my favourite song on “Cosmic Devonian”. The performance of every member is really good, sound quality also leaves nothing more to desire… and well, even if you cannot say that Grond is something spectacular, it’s just another very good death metal release that you wanna come back to every now and then and simply enjoy it, banging the skull like maniac. And the fact that they’re Russian is a bonus for me, because there were never any really good bands in Russia before. Now there are five or six, which I really like and I’m sure more will come in the future.

Standout track: “Japetus - the Ice Gate”

Final rate: 70/100