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Grave: As rapture comes

16/06/06 || Lord K Philipson

I talked to Jonas (guitars) of Grave over the phone a few weeks ago and asked him about his personal feelings about this new Grave-album that I had yet to hear. He said something along the lines of “This is how we always wanted to sound”. With “always” I think he meant since he rejoined the band after “Hating life”, which is an album best to be let unheard.

After the mandatory crap-intro that adds nothing at all to the album, “Burn” (neatly stolen TPH-title. Sure, we are the only ones who ever used it) takes off in my Cerwin Vega’s. I’m no longer that bummed about Ola’s vocals, though I’ll never be able to listen to “today’s” Grave without thinking how it would sound with the one and only J massaging his vocal-chords to the brutality. This tune shows a Grave that is vital, at least to some extent. I just miss some memorable riffing and grooviness among the mid-paced death metal I’m faced with here. It’s a decent opening-track, nothing more, nothing less. And the Obituary-vibe in some passages is nice.

“Through eternity” picks up the pace a bit with some faster parts and awesome blasts. I dig Pelle’s blasts, they sound clean and to-the-point. There’s nothing ground-breaking going on here either though. There has yet to appear riffs that gives me chills. As it is now it’s just damn competent and sounds as expected.

“By demons bred” is a nice title, I’ll give them that. But it would have been even catchier if it was called “Buy demons bread”. Ok, shoot me, that was awesome. Here we finally have a killer-riff blowing thru the fast verse and when the blasts come in I get a good dose of Vomitory-feelings, and no one can fail with that. This is what I’m talking about, this is what Grave should be doing instead of the mid-tempo things present way too often in the later material. I will forever be puzzled as for why they didn’t open the album with this track. “By demons bred” is quite a fucken killer-track, people. Pelle gets to show off some fast double-bass in the end as well. And I dig that shit. “By demons bred” is quite possible what “Breeder” was to “Fiendish regression”. At least it gives me the same feelings.

Next up is “Living the dead behind”, working the same formula as the last track; a slow start followed by fast shit. Undeniably death metal enough for all of you. A nice, chunky, breakdown in the middle of the song slows shit down and leaves me quite unimpressed until the faster stuff comes in again. Ola sounds really good at some parts here and Pelle’s drumming is still impressive and has definitely brought some life into the grave over the years. It feels like I have said that exact phrase before when it comes to “today’s” Grave. Fuck it.

“Unholy terror” starts off with one thing in mind: Annihilation. And annihilate it does when it comes to relentlessness (that is the best word ever, if it’s even a word) and the “take no prisoners” -concept. A full on, brutal, death metal assault with some interesting drumming (again) from Pelle in the breakdown. I just love blasts and this tune sure hands them out. I think it’s awesome that Grave’s incorporated more of this since that was exactly what I wanted them to do. The ”-Hah, we fooled you, cunt!” breakdown in the end is fucken awesome. Good work, kids.

With a title like “Battle of Eden”, you would think Grave just entered the filthy world of power metal. This is the first song where I can actually hear the bass clearly, and I think it’s becoz it’s a “bass-only” break in it. Fuck me if I couldn’t hear it then. No matter the cheesy title, this tune goes by quite unnoticed.

And fuck me. “Epic obliteration” pounds my shit to… eh… shit. Once again, Grave shows when they are at their best: While blasting and doing the fast stuff. It’s when they incorporate those mid-tempo, non-catchy riffs I get bored. There’s just too little groove to them riffs for me to get Vanessa Carlton-excited. That’s what Grave did so well in the past, even the slow stuff was awesome since those riffs really grooved. Just listen to songs like “Scars” or the mid-section of “Rain”, both from the “Soulless”-album (yes, you all know that’s their best album, and always will be) and you’ll get my point. Or 2 points. Or a free-kick. Or a 2-minute penalty for being ugly as fuck.

“Them bones” is naturally a cover and I don’t think I have to say what band did it originally, but it wasn’t Kiss. This I fucken dig. Simply becoz Grave made a great version of it, making it sound like Grave. This is how you do covers, kids. Listen and learn. Awesome work, fucko’s.

And last up is the title-track, “As penis cums”. Wow, that was again, one awesome joke by yer favourite-pimp. Thank you. Thank you very fucken much. I was never much of a fan of songs bearing the title of the album (with a few exceptions, ofcourse. Tatu’s “Dangerous and moving” is a fine example), basically becoz you expect something spectacular from that very song. This one is not any different to the rest of the material on the album. Nice death metal, executed by veterans in the scene. No surprises whatsoever, but still enjoyable. Bonus-points to Pelle’s playful performance in the end of the track, together with the completely insane blast ending this whole thing.

“Fiendish regression” was a good album, showing a Grave heading into faster territories. “As rapture comes” shows they are fucken there now. I like that. I’m not extatic by any means, but “As rapture comes” is a good and fucken solid effort.

7,5/10.

Information
Released: 2006
Label: Century Media
Website: www.grave.se
Band
Ola Lindgren: vocals, guitar
Jonas Torndal: guitar
Fredrik Isaksson: bass
Pelle Ekegren: drums

Tracklist
01. Intro/The day of reckoning
02. Burn
03. Through eternity
04. By demons bred
05. Living the dead behind
06. Unholy terror
07. Battle of Eden
08. Epic obliteration
09. Them bones (Blümchen-cover)
10. As rapture comes

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