Thursday, June 10, 2010

Split: Graves At Sea / Asunder

I always felt that the material I had heard from Graves At Sea was never that special, and kind of uninspired. But whatever the problem was, they took care of it here on what ended up being their last recorded output. They're certainly not breaking any boundaries, yet these two songs are just so well done that I can't help but groove along. The vocals actually end up being one of the highlights for me, as they're satisfyingly evil and tormented. There's also a few legitimately awesome riffs in "Pariah" which stand out quite a bit. If you like the sound of Burning Witch meets Eyehategod or something along those lines, look no further. Crushing and evil doom.

On the flip side, Asunder offer up what I think is one of the more menacing songs they've done. It plods along at the pace of a funeral march, as riffs and melodies rise and fall slowly (over the song's 20 minute span), while progressing onwards to the next idea. The band always displays some incredible songwriting. And although I described this as menacing, there's of course a heavy dose of mournfulness and sorrow. This is some seriously heavy and gloomy stuff that I can never reccomend enough.

Graves At Sea:
1.Pariah
2.Reclamation
Asunder:
1.Whited Sepulcher

LP still available from 20BuckSpin and CD from lifeisabuse.

DL: "Graves At Sea/Asunder"

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