### Grave: Dominion VIII

#### 14/04/09 || Daemonomania

I hate to do it. It fucken makes me feel awful. To give the newest album by your all-time favorite band a mediocre score? Complete dickhead maneuver, right?

Well, the hardcore 20 years plus Swedish death metal murder machines leave me with little choice. For some reason, after releasing the rejuvenated and violent “As rapture comes”, Lord Ola and his trio of friends decided to shoot themselves right in the foot. Nope, they didn’t fuck up the new and impressive balance between the almighty Gravegroove™ and the newfound ability to blast. Nope, they didn’t decide to add clean vocal and acoustic guitar interludes. And no, they didn’t decide to start singing about their feelings (again! Fuck you, “Hating life”!). What they fucked up was the production.

Normally, we all talk about production in these reviews like it is a big deal. Let’s face facts people – most of you motherfuckers who download shit all the time wouldn’t know if an album was produced by Dan Swanö or the infamous wet t-shirt. From Malta. But the abysmal production on “Dominion VIII” cannot be ignored. I can see what they were trying to do – recapture that ancient, murky sound from “Into the grave”. Only take it a step further, and make it sound worse than their debut. Fuck me, even their demos from the late 80’s sound better than this! Actually, one of these songs IS a re-recording from 1988. Fits right in. Minus four points. A sick (disgust eternal) feeling wells up inside. Ugh.

But once you claw your way up through the mud, what do the Swedeathers of yore have to offer us musically? Well, I can safely say that if they remixed this it would be an immediate favorite. As aforementioned, they’ve come up with a great balance between fast and slow, and on this album Grave-y Train definitely amped up the doomy, crushing riffs part of the equation. There are some grooves on here that feel like a 50 car pileup, on the Autobahn, suicide bombers behind the well of each vehicle, zero gravity. In other words, awesome. Drumming is spot on, solos are kept short and minimal, and Ola’s vox are more evil than ever.

There’s plenty of great songs on “Dominion VIII”, and patient fans of the band will certainly find a lot to love. But you can’t really hear any of it. Shit, what a waste. I’ll give ‘em a point for being Grave and be done with it.

7 squandered chances at conquering the classic Swedish death metal throne out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Regain Records
- Website: www.grave.se
- Band
- Ola Lindgren: guitars, vocals
- Fredrik Isaksson: bass
- Ronnie Bergerståhl: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. A World In Darkness
- 02. Fallen (Angel Son)
- 03. Deathstorm
- 04. Stained By Hate
- 05. Bloodpath
- 06. Annihilated Gods
- 07. Sinners Lust
- 08. Dark Signs
- 09. 8th Dominion