Graceless - Where Vultures Know Your Name

GRACELESS - Where Vultures Know Your Name (RAW SKULL Records - LP 2020)

Another excellent album from Graceless is coming this year (March, 2020) and I can guarantee that if you liked "Shadowlands" and "Endless Spiral of Terror" split with Grond, then "Where Vultures Know Your Name" will definitely be up your street also. Obviously Graceless is not trying to discover something new, they basically keep the classic death metal formulas as pure and traditional as possible... and for some it may mean that "Where Vultures Know Your Name" is going to be boring, but for the real death metal maniacs it will mean that this album is a real crusher. And it surely is, in my opinion.

This is one of those albums, which caught my attention right from the very beginning, with its massive heavy sound, powerful and brutal, but kind of infectious and memorable death metal. Yes, every song here is memorable. Maybe it's due to relatively simple riffage and song structures, or maybe it's just because Graceless aims to have similar vibe as the old heroes such as Bolt Thrower, Asphyx or Grave - which means that songs will not be a useless technical guitar-molestation, but actually have some sense, characteristic riffs and ideas and more so, the atmosphere. "Where Vultures..." is mainly mid paced or slow death metal, it never blasts like crazy, but still have that crushing sound and straight forward playing, which brings only destruction. I absolutely love that kind of death metal, which they present for instance in the title track or "Commander of Christ", which is very Asphyx-iated, and bring a fantastic combination of slow, heavy riffage and a bit mournful melodic parts. I can compare it also to some newer bands like Decaying or Just Before Dawn, and you can be sure that in case of all these bands it sounds great. That death metal style is what dominates on "Where Vultures Know Your Name", but unlike some other bands, it never sounds boring or repetitive, also because Graceless comes with a bit different ideas or songs here and there, like the more up-tempo "Warpath" or nice bass work in "Nine Days of Mourning"...

Anyway, the songwriting is in top quality level, in my opinion, there's truly strong death metal here and I cannot imagine that this album could be overlooked by death fanatics. So, if we can't get new albums from Bolt Thrower, Asphyx of Hail of Bullets, Graceless should satisfy our hunger. It did mine.

Standout tracks: "Nine Days of Mourning", "Commander of Christ", "Where Vultures Know Your Name", "Here be Dragons"

Verdict: 80/100

Gravehill / Mordbrand - Skullbearer / In Nighted Waters

GRAVEHILL / MORDBRAND - Skullbearer / In Nighted Waters (DOOMENTIA Records Split LP 2016)

Cool split with Gravehill and Mordbrand was released few years ago, but I admit that I did let it get covered with dust and haven't played it even once, until some time ago. That's the result of "I buy too many records" illness, I am afraid. But it's better late than never, as they say. And so Gravehill and Mordbrand ripped some guts with this piece of 12" vinyl! And I am absolutely happy that I finally gave a chance to this record, because it shreds.

I don't think I've ever had a chance to hear anything from Gravehill before, which is definitely odd, since they already have four albums and are part of Dark Descent roster, which always means a high quality release. But for some reason, I only knew Gravehill by name... until the day, when I bought and started to play their part of split LP with Mordbrand. I have to say these four songs from them are killer. Gravehill plays kind of mixture of everything - there's black, thrash, death, some may even hear a bit of speed or heavy metal, as these old school styles of metal are always very connected (unlike the modern styles of metal). Material on "Skullbearer", with its sound and attitude, reminds me some Aussie bands for sure, with that vicious, savage, raw style of classic metal. It is relentless, pissed off, satanic and aggressive as fuck. If you like Gospel of the Horns or Destroyer 666, then Gravehill will be up your street for sure. I could also mention US bands like Nunslaughter for the whole picture, why not. I love the riffage, the atmosphere of the music, I also like the fact that despite being so vicious, the music is fairly memorable. It's kind of music, which you play and immediately want to bang your skull, have a beer and just have some fun. I also like J.T. Corpse vocals a lot... and my favourite songs? It can be "Upon the 6th Chime", as I love that blasting part in it and the chorus is also pretty badass. All in all, great recording and I definitely need to search for some other Gravehill releases.

I don't know how many reviews I already did for Mordbrand, as this is one of my favourite new(er) Swedish death metal bands. Well, another one won't do harm, right? On the other hand what else can I write about their nasty death metal? Well, generally their style is more aggressive and much less melodic than many other Swedish bands. If I had to, I would put them aside to bands like Grave, Paganizer, Facebreaker, which all have that very recognizable Swedish sound, but whose music is more straight forward and heavy from the classic Swedish sound of Gorement, Excruciate or God Macabre. On this split Mordbrand prepared four songs plus a cover of Dutch weirdos Bluuurgh... and I think that "In Nighted Waters" is one of the strongest recordings from Mordbrand. Their own songs kick ass, there's fantastic feeling in their music, great riffs, a lot of energy that bursts from the speakers, when the music is played loud, especially from "Cold Womb", which is a fast motherfucker. Some parts of their split sound a lot slower though, even a bit more groovy, what reminds me Grave's mid 90's albums, whose I'm not big fan of, if you believe. Just give a listen to "Parishioners of the Bleeding (Storm Against Creation)" for instance. But Mordbrand sounds great and their cover of Bluuurgh... is also not bad at all, even though I'm not big fan of "In My Embrace" album.

Great job then from both bands, Mordbrand again proved how good they are and Gravehill turned out to be a massive surprise for me and I am definitely going to search for their other recordings. This split was unleashed by Doomentia Records, but since it is sold out I think, then your only chance to find it is Discogs.

Standout tracks: “Cold Womb”, "Upon the 6th Chime"

Verdict: 80/100

Celestial Sanctuary - Mass Extinction

CELESTIAL SANCTUARY - Mass Extinction (BRUTAL CAVE Productions - CD 2019)

Recently I was recommended to check this new British band, whose first demo was released a while ago. And so I did; two songs on bandcamp were enough to impress me a lot. I immediately ordered a physical copy of this demo, because I wanted to have a CD in my collection, rather than a digital file. Soon later CD arrived and here I am, writing few words about Celestial Sanctuary and their "Mass Extinction" demo.

Well, there are two songs only, so I won't be writing a book-long article, but few words will be enough I think to describe the content and my impression. First off, the band is named after one of Bolt Thrower's songs. And they are also British. That should be enough for you to understand what type of music we deal with here. Obviously Bolt Thrower is not the only influence for Celestial Sanctuary, at least that's what I hear... You could also add Asphyx, Grave, etc. It's just that heavy, but brutal and vicious death metal, with a bone crushing, dismembering massive sound. Celestial Sanctuary doesn't reinvent anything, they basically follow the old classic rules, but they are good at it, I think. I like their sound, I like the riffage, vocals... Basically everything on these two songs sounds just right. I know it's basically repeating what other bands did before, but I still am able to find sadistic pleasure in listening to such music and even such new bands like Celestial Sanctuary give me that thrill. Maybe it's because of the passion, which comes from their music? Or the powerful kick? Whatever, I liked it a lot and I am definitely looking forward to hear more from Celestial Sanctuary.

Verdict: 80/100