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Grave: Fiendish regression

09/12/04 || Lord K Philipson

I looked forward to getting this advance-CD from guitarist Jonas, pretty much because ex-bassist/vocalist Jörgen Sandström claimed it was really good, but also for the plain fact that they have gotten rid of old drummer Jensa, who’s been very uninspired on the last couple of albums. With this new guy, hailing from Sweden’s Coercion, I was told there would be some faster stuff again instead of the very mid-paced stuff that controlled both “Hating Life” and “Back from the grave” to the fullest. After listening to this album a ton of times I can clearly state that there’s definitely a bigger variety to be found on “Fiendish Regression” compared to the other two just-mentioned albums. One thing that struck me by surprise is that Grave have thrown in a few blastbeats here and there. Absolutely a smart move. It’s a damn shame it only took some 15 albums before they realized that as well. And yes, I do know that they had Chris of Kaamos on drums in between these 2 latest albums, fuck you.

Another thing that differs today’s Grave from the past Grave is that they have decided not to record the album in Sunlight Studios this time around. That’s a second smart move right there. For some reason they ended up putting this fucker on tape, just a few weeks after we recorded the God Among Insects album at the same place, in Abyss Studios with technician Tommy Tägtgren. Tommy knows his shit for sure and has provided Grave with a good sound. I have yet to hear something coming out of Abyss that sounds like shite I might add. I have a few complaints about the production though… The vocals are definitely way too low in the mix, but that’s pretty much all I have to say when it comes to bad things with this. Olas’ and Jonas’ guitars are crunchy as Special K’s, the bass is noticable and the drums sound all fine. I love how the drums come out sounding from the Abyss Studios.

So, let me have a go at the new drummer for a bit. While not being the tightest thing since nun-ass, he is doing a good job behind the kit. He’s definitely adapted a bit of what ex-drummer Jensa threw in for Grave as far as fills go, and I dig that. It adds a nice touch to his drumming, which is way more varied than anything Jensa ever did. The album is packed with mid-paced doublebass-shit as well as a few more technical things, that Grave could only dream about with the old drummer in the band. Don’t get me wrong, I dig Jensa’s way of playing, preferebly on the first 3 albums, but this new guy (whose fucken name I don’t care to look up at the moment) is just more fun to listen to. Alice Deejay is more fun to listen to than any drummer by the way, but that’s kinda beside the point.

So, now when we have dealt with the beats of this album, what about the rest?

You don’t have to be a fucken rocket-scientist to pick out the riffs on this album. It’s nothing complicated at all, and that’s not really what Grave ever tried to do. They know how to write decent death metal riffs, I just wish there was more of those fuck-me-sideways-with-a-kitten-this-fucken-devastates-riffs, as can be found the first three albums. Think “Turning Black”, “Into the Grave”, “Christinsanity”, “And here I die”, “Rain”, etc etc etc… Those riffs are not really present in today’s Grave, which is a major fucken disgrace. It’s heavy as all-fuck and it’s death metal, but it’s lacking the needed groove. The kind of riffs that gets me goosebumps on my cock are not here, even if the song “Breeder” gives some “You’ll never see” vibes. I’d even go as far as stating that this track is the best one on the album, and probably the best track Grave’s written for a few years. A fast fucker with an opening riff that Morbid Angel would be proud of. Add some excellent blasts to complete the audible orgasm. I can only imagine how it’d sound with ex-vocalist Jörgen… It was some 10 years ago that he left the band, let’s not dig deeper into that. But IF he was on this track, it would mean; Complete domifuckenation! Excellent work fucktards. Now all you need to do is come up with 10 of these tracks for the next album.

Hoho.

I think that’s the main problem with today’s Grave. Too much of the stuff on the album isn’t very memorable. It doesn’t stick like shit on Nightwish-fans.

Let me cover the remaining tracks on the disc in no particular order;

“Inner Voice” is a typical Grave mid-tempo track that could have been a scratched track from the “Soulless” recordings. “Bloodfeast” speeds things up a bit with some thrashy riffing, though it passes me by pretty much unnoticed. “Heretic” starts off with a riff that sounds so much like something I recorded 7 years ago, which means it’s a decent riff. Some Slayer comes to mind with that slow clean guitar-thing before it moves on into a faster direction. Nothing really memorable though except for that mentioned clean guitar-thing. “Awakening” could easily have been recorded around the times of “Soulless” as well, just to be scratched when it was time to finalize the tracklisting for the album. This one gives me some excellent Candlemass-vibes (how many times did we say “vibes” yet?) with that slow, groovy’n‘crunchy (how many times did we say “crunchy” yet?) riff (how many times did we say “riff” yet?). “Reborn” attacks from the get-go with some sweet-ass blasts before transforming into a much heavier piece than one would initially expect. “Trial by fire” kicks off with a drum intro that doesn’t sound a 100 % tight-as-fuck. Sweet fuck-me-gently chorus-riffing. “Last journey” shows some more of those afore-mentioned Slayer-guitars in the intro. Pretty basic Grave, anno 2004. “Out of the light”, for starters, reminds me a bit of Entombed, around the “Crawl” era, just to move into a fast, basic, death metal-track by all means.

I think I just covered all the tracks that are planned for the album, but on my advance-disc I have 2 bonus-tracks, fuck knows what they will be for. Anyways, one of these 2 is a Saint Vitus-cover. I never cared for Saint Vitus. And I don’t care for this cover. “Autopsied”, on the other hand, is a very old Grave-tune, re-recorded. I don’t think I ever heard this one to be honest, but it definitely shows where Grave came from, and how I’d prefer them to sound. This screams “Into the Grave”, and I suppose this is one of the tracks that never made it onto that album. It’s a shame, it’s a great fucken track. Fuck this, I’m calling Jörgen to see where this fucken track is coming from.

‘dials number‘

Me: What’s fucken up crony?

J : Krååååååååååny!

Me: Is “Autopsied” written before “Into the grave”?

J : No, “Into the grave” is older.

Me: I mean the album, not the song.

J: Yeah, it’s older than the recording, but not older than the “Into the grave”-song.

Me: I fucken knew it. Great fucken track.

J: Wasn’t that track on some split-album from England? Do you remember that one?

Me: Yeah.

J: Fuck, I’ll call you back. I need to check if it was.

Me: Fucken do it. I love you.

J: I love you.

That’s how fucken cool we are. I’m waiting for J to call back with some more info about this shit… While he’s on the phone I might even ask some things for a small interview within the review. I’m a fucken genius.

‘waiting‘

16 hours later…

‘coming home‘

Damn, I never got to finish this last night as we ended up drinking and watching Sweden getting fucked up by Holland in the soccer-thing. I guess the J-interview will have to wait.

I’ve ranted long enough, I have a girlfriend to fuck so I’ll leave you with the score for this album.

7/10 – This one is better than “Back from the grave” and the song “Breeder” is definitely pulling Grave in the right direction.

Information
Released: 2004
Label: Century Media
Website: www.intothegrave.com
Band
Ola Lindgren: vocals, leadguitar
Jonas Torndal: rhythm guitar
Fredrik Isaksson: bass
Pelle Ekegren: drums

Tracklist
01. Last journey
02. Reborn
03. Awakening
04. Breeder
05. Trial by fire
06. Out of the light
07. Inner voice
08. Bloodfeast
09. Heretic

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