Artist: Grave
Title: Burial Ground
Type: Album
Label: Regain Records

Swedish forefathers of death metal started all of this when they were called Corpse all those years ago in 1986. Their sound still developing, but the barebones of that sound can still be heard today and it has influenced so many bands along the way. In 2010, are Grave still relevant, of course, did you think they would start to make Scuzz or Kerrang TV music!

First up, there is a fair bit of slow burning nihilism to the tracks in general; a darker side, a much heavier guitar tone leading to a downtuned sounding Grave, which is pretty effective in the grand scheme of things. You have to take note of stand out tracks like ‘Dismembered Mind’ (with Matti from Dismember penning some of the lyrics), song arrangements are still strong and ideas vibrant, no matter how old school you think you are you can still learn a thing or two from these masters and long-standing member Ola Lindgren. ‘Sexual Mutilation’ is one of the stunning tunes, and it seems like more progression into the album leads to further excessive forms of rotten aggression, even above the levels of the poor quality skipping mp3 files. The fruits of their tour last year with Nile pay off on ‘Bloodtrail’ that features Karl Sanders (you can tell which lead is his really!) on guitar. When you talk about Grave there is not much else to relate. This is a strong release, much like their last two, but there seems to be that bit of an angrier element to it, there is something that is pushing Grave to be a harder, heavier band without losing their beloved roots of the Swedish underground. ‘Burial Ground’ is a good safe bet and well worthy of your cash.

Bare to the bones aggression in a little over 42 minutes of your time, ‘Burial Ground’ is perfect ear bruising material from these Swedish masters.

http://www.grave.se/
http://www.regainrecords.com