Grave Emerging from the confounding contradiction of youthful exuberance for the macabre process of corporeal decomposition as confronting and embracing the finality of all life, this first effort from Swedish band Grave terrifically exemplifies the essential and defining characteristics of death metal, represented in the stylistic custom which personified its place and time. Brutish and pulverizing in the sophistication of compositional articulation and death metal intelligence, Grave’s music is powered by massive weight of sound delivered with blunt-force attack, emphasizing rhythmic momentum over melodic fluidity like a Swedish Obituary, yet with a more developed awareness of dramatic form and instrumental skill. The Sunlight Studio production presents a burly sound of sonic thickness and clarity, yet compressed to a degree of claustrophobia, limiting aural space to increase the atmospheric impression of suffocation. Fantastic rhythmical groove in the swampy Swedish tradition of crawling, festering, lumbering impending doom of death, plots with accurate yet savage speed which fluctuates from blast-beat to D-beat through simplistic transitions. Ugly, discomforting riffs thick with the aroma of the soil of Earth produce dark and morose atmosphere through echoing textures; denying the rays of hope in a repugnant engrossment on human malignancy and putrid destination. "where is your light The classic Swedish Death Metal tradition of ‘brutality through simplicity’ is typified in the instrumentalism and structure of Into The Grave. This method allows violent and dismaying moods to seep through the musical attack unimpeded by instrumental excess or compositional detours, and accents the dense tenacity of carnal rot. Songs are compact in their structural format of conventional patterns, yet altered from the standards of traditional rock and metal to meet the demands of death metal continuance and elaboration. Tempo is predominately a variation of punk/hardcore-influenced beats, particularly the D-beat popularized by Discharge which served as the primary influence on early Scandinavian bands. Blast-beats are used sparingly and for brief durations to enhance rhythmic intensity, while the same approach is taken toward slower sections to enhance through contrast, tempering the violence of foundational speed with hopeless doom. Guitars are drenched in buzzing distortion in the popular custom of Sunlight Studio recording, though the intention of low-end thickness requires a murkier grinding sound quality. Guitar solos emerge from the mire as atmospheric accents, excitements in the drudge swarming overhead before descending back into the churning surge of dark rhythmic propulsion. Roaring vocals are delivered with mundane morbidity, eschewing variation save for a few well-placed screams of horror. The low, monotonous growling is both a rhythmic and mood-assisting element which the vocalist understands must be mundane to communicate the apathetic character of persistent processes of death. Melodies are understated and pugnacious, as this is rhythmic death metal of a low-end weightiness fueled by unrelenting rhythms, assiduously heaving and terrifying in its constancy, like the blind persistence of decay. Grave’s intelligence in structural dynamic of death metal, specifically their effective application of duration and use of thematic drama, brings these stylistic elements together in an understanding of and dedicated belief in death metal as something more than music, but an artistic expression of the dread of the frightening particulars in death’s numerous forms, explored in morbid fascination and anti-social anger towards mainstream fear and denial of the reality of death. "A life in terror in a
landscape cursed by hate Into The Grave is expert death metal in the prototypical intension of conveying the horror of death in its manifold forms, entertaining morbid fantasies in a nihilistic denouncement of life as a way to emphasize death’s superiority. Like all quality death metal, the substance of physical decomposition speaks through the artistic expression as an act of mocking this human circus in the confrontational reminder that all life ends. This hatred for the utopian denial of the gruesome and disgusting, the pushing away of death as the condition on which all life exists, echoes in ferocious and escalated strain throughout this album, under mournful clouds of hopelessness, in the shape of songs functioning as aural snapshots of mutilated existence. 1/21/08 Tracklisting: 1. Deformed Grave Discography Into The Grave
(Century Media, 1991)
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