### Grift: Fyra elegier

#### 03/04/13 || sincan

So here I am again, reviewing another debuting band from Sweden. I was actually thinking about my ratio of reviewed bands from Sweden vs other countries today, what the fuck, maybe I’m the only one thinking about this and one more doesn’t hurt, right? I recently reviewed Stilla which is on the same label as Grift. I was surprised of Stilla’s awesomeness and when I saw that the label was going to release another little thing, namely this EP, my expectations reached the moon.

Grift is a two man project formed in the year of 2011. They play what I consider to be a melancholic type of black metal with doom influences. This melancholic black metal seems to be a thing these days with Skogen, Stilla and now Grift. It’s depressing, beautiful, and well crafted. It’s not like the typical lo-fi boiling blood and sulfur atmospheric black metal which many tends to only have in mind while thinking about this genre. Well I certainly like the typical bm style as well but I’m pretty open minded too. I guess no one else agrees on that but fuck them.

The EP starts with an noisy recording of some string (maybe violin) music which pretty much sets the mood of the EP in the best of ways. Perfect intro, I’m actually impressed. The track then turns into what will be the rest of the journey, namely some mid-paced music of excellence. The vocals might be perceived as a bit odd in the beginning. Once one has listened through the four tracks for the first time one will most likely appreciate the semi singing and rasping vocals.

What is really good with their music is that they sometimes let their music speak for itself, without vocals, and I don’t lie when I’m saying that the message is still getting through. While some bands struggle to have their suicidal, depressive, nihilistic and shocking music as genuine as possible, ending up overdoing it, sounding like a little kid who didn’t get the right iPhone during Satanmas, Grift succeeds with using less of those attributes. Don’t think that I’m saying that Grift is a suicidal black metal band or anything similar in the terms of that genre, just imagine the feeling and mood being transferred to the focused listener.

The ending of “Den fångne” is a fucking masterpiece, including all the things I’ve mentioned so far about their style in the finest of manners. It is really hard not to stop doing what you just was doing and just listen, paying full attention to the mesmerizing, cold and yet not dead track. The same goes for the ending on the last track. Holy shit, my eyes just caught the back of my Drudkh albums and I must say, Grift is sometimes as a Swedish version of Drudkh, and yes, Grift are also including poetical works in their songs.

If you like this type of music, or if you like music that somehow touches you FUCKING GET THIS EP.

- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Nordvis
- Website: Grift Facebook
- Band
- Perditor: vocals, strings
- J. Hallbäck: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Dödens dåd
- 02. Förtappelsens folk
- 03. Den fångne
- 04. Bortgång