The Swedish death metal band Grave will always have
a special place in my heart. Their 1994 album “Soulless” was the first metal CD
I ever bought, they were one of the first metal bands I saw live, and they were
the first metal band I played for my girlfriend Vicki on one of our first
dates. That was over seven years ago,
and she’s still around, so she must have understood it was all in good fun when
I raised the horns and grunted along to “I’m soulless to the core. I’m six,
six, six. I am your death; I am the crucifix, on which you are nailed!”
However, although Grave, Carcass, Slayer, Comecon,
and a few other bands led me to the edge of the abyss in the mid-90’s, at the
time I didn’t quite have the nerve to take the plunge and become a full-fledged
metalhead, so I stepped back and took comfort in a mix of British rock and
indie rock bands that were easier on the ears and less frightening and had much
more meaningful lyrics. By the early
2000’s, the pit had opened again, and this time I didn’t even try to
resist. Now, when listening to music I
no longer wanted it to give expression to whatever emotions I was feeling or
vocalize my political views; I preferred it to provide me with the kind of
escape I experienced when watching science fiction, horror, and fantasy movies. No music does this better than metal.
I descended slowly, so it wasn’t until last year
that I revisited Grave. The occasion was
the summer release of their tenth studio album, “Endless Procession of Souls,”
and it was clear from the opening tracks that the Grave I first encountered in
the 90’s is alive and well. The album’s
tone is set with “Dystopia,” a thirty-second instrumental consisting of slow, heavy
riffs delivered from thick, down-tuned guitars.
It sounds like a dirge for souls marching to hell, and it’s followed by
nine songs in which vocalist/guitarist Ola Lingren rejects God and grunts about
death, dying, and the afterlife. Grave
play slower than most younger death metal bands, but the songs on EPOS have
just enough groove to avoid droning together into one slow grinding
monolith. It starts strong as “Dystopia”
bleeds into “Amongst the Marble and the Dead,” a relatively fast-paced song in
which Lingren pleads, “Let me rot, amongst the marble and the dead,” seeming to
adopt the perspective of a member the undead.
Tracks like “Winds of Chains,” another faster-paced song that narrates
the earth’s purging of humanity through a series of natural disasters, keep the
album interesting by adding variety through tempo-changes and variations on the
album’s themes. The album’s heaviest
song is the title track, which closes the album and horrifies listeners with a
doom-laden vision of the afterlife. It’s
also one of the best songs Grave have ever recorded.
Grave are unique among the Swedish death metal bands
that began releasing albums in the late 80’s/early 90’s because they have
preserved their original sound with only minor adjustments. Characterized by thick, down-tuned
characters, slow, heavy riffs, and a touch of groove, it’s a sound worth
preserving. However, the vocals are what
make Grave stand out for me. Vocals
often (some would say always) ruin death metal. When offering your blackened soul to Satan,
your gift won’t be accepted if you have the harmonious voice of an angel, but
in too many instances, death metal singers sound like Cookie Monster and the
vocals don’t flow with the music; they run alongside it trying to catch
up. By contrast, Lingren employs a raspy
grunt that is appropriately evil, complements the music, and renders his lyrics
intelligible.
Hearing EPOS was liked reconnecting with an old
friend. Wondering what Grave had been up
to since the mid-90’s, I started working my way through their back
catalog. They disbanded in 1997, but
regrouped two years later, and they’ve released six albums since 2002, all of
which have been well-received. I’ve made
it through only the two direct predecessors to EPOS, “Dominion VIII” (2008) and
“Burial Ground” (2010), both of which feature everything I love about Grave,
but neither is as strong as EPOS.
“Burial Ground” suffers from poor production, and the guitars are
unintentionally fuzzy, particularly at high volumes, which is the only way to
play Grave. Like EPOS, it ends with a
long title track (continuing a trend that started with “As Rapture Comes”
(2006)) that is the best song on the album.
It also contains one of my favorite lines from a metal song: “I was lost, but now I’m loooooooost!” The higher production value of “Dominion
VIII” captures Grave’s thick guitars better than “Burial Ground” and
contributes to a better album. “Dominion
VIII” also has more stand out songs, particularly “Fallen (Angel Song)” and
“Annihilated Gods,” both of which alternate speed with grooves and thus
demonstrate that the band is not a one-trick pony in its approach to rejecting
God. The strongest song is again the
title track, which closes the album with Lingren grunting about hell.
Grave’s three most recent albums have been on
heavy-rotation on my iPod since December, and I expect they will stay that way
for the rest of this year and will soon be joined by a few more. I’m ashamed to admit that I missed Grave when
they played in Charlotte in August, but there’s every reason to believe they’ll
keep releasing albums and touring for the immediate future. However, even if EPOS ends up being their
last album, they will have earned an honored place in hell.
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