GRAVES AT SEA (Documents Of Grief) MCD
A new US-band comes up with their first self-financed release, which contains four tracks. Occult influenced, GRAVES AT SEA fused deceptively basic, doom-laden guitar riffs with an unhuman vocal assault. Lyrically morbid, with mystic self-struggling lyrics, tracks like "Red Monarch" or "Wormwood" highlighting their tongue-in-cheek vision of a bleak exsistence. At "Red Monarch" they've thrown in a soulful bluesy guitar-solo, what makes their black brew just more convincing for me. Please, more next time! A few tempo variations are another plus here, but for my taste, the vocals are the weakest point here. Generally, I like this kind of dark growls and psychotic shrieks, but here it's a bit to wanna-be like. I think that GRAVES AT SEA have to progress here. And when I compare this MCD with the 7", this band has released on Southern Lord, they've done it so far. All in all, "Documents of Grief" is a nice debut, not groundbreaking, but fans of Electric Wizard, later Sour Vein or Thorr's Hammer should give it a chance. For actual GRAVES AT SEA news, check out their website.
(KK)