Artist: Vore
Title: Gravehammer
Type: Album
Label: Self Released

Vore have been releasing material since their 1995 demo and ‘Gravehammer’ is still only their third full length release. The standard of music is bare bones traditional US death metal with a few groovy influences taken from both the UK and European scene, layered with crunchy down tuned passages this bastardised recording. The guitar sweeps during ‘The Unseen Hand’ certainly make this a pleasurable and surprising experience. But I get the general feeling that this is both simplistic and also a very genuine piece of death metal, you can hear this through the recording, certainly the backbone of the recording in any case, the guitar sweeps appear to be thrown into the mix just for the hell of it.

‘The Claw is the Law’ is just over 8 minutes long, whether you have the staying power for this one is another matter altogether, there is a really only so far you can take a riff and an arrangement without becoming complacent, a few tempo changes would have made this a much more entertaining track to listen too. But then, shorter bursts are where some of the magic happens. Encrusted in torture for the listener (in a reasonably positive aspect) is ‘Doomwhore’, another lengthy affair. The inherent guitar sweeps I hit upon earlier, stand out a bit like a square peg in a round hole, it just does not sit as comfortable to the overall Vore sound. I feel that riffs and sweeps in this instance requires a more organic, a more graveyard approach (like the rhythm guitar parts) as these are pretty strong songs to be fair to Vore.

‘Gravehammer’ is a consistent mid paced death metal release, there are flashes of brilliance, especially in the guitar work, but I am not overtly sure if the arrangement and guitar tone actually fits this style of down to earth death metal. But in the bands favour is experience and a collection of songs that will tickle any 1990’s death metal fan, but it won’t necessarily have you jumping up and down to make a noise about it.

http://www.vore.org

Paul Maddison

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