Whizzing by at less than half an hour, Early Graves demonstrate that quality is superior to quantity, both of which come second and third to honest-to-God poundage and up-tempo crust punkiness. The sound has morphed from the experimental earlier works released under the name of Apiary into a much more abrasive and aggressive assault on the senses. This isn’t necessarily a good thing, but at least the metalcore elements which presented themselves from time to time on the previous releases have vanished too.
Recorded in what sounds like an analogue format, whilst keeping the main instruments alive and kicking (quite literally in the case of the up-tempo drum patterns), this album presents a selection of short songs which all clock in around the two minute mark. The band describe themselves as mixing the rock ‘n’ roll of the Hellacopters with the hardcore of Bad Brains, with the heaviness of death metal and intensity of power violence. What this amounts to is pure unadulterated crusty grindcore more than anything else, with angst-ridden song titles such as ‘Faith Is Shit’, ‘Rot’ and ‘Harm’ setting the disillusioned and sombre tone of the release. One can sense the despair in the screams of Makh Daniels, who has clearly bottled up all his emotion and hate into this alcohol-themed release.
This album’s variety comes in the form of whether the songs are fast (such as the title track) or mid-tempo (like ‘Wraiths’), rather than anything else, and it is perhaps to the album’s detriment that this is the only component of the album which is subject to change. However, with such aggression and rage against life itself, this is more of a statement than anything else, and it should be listened to as such.
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