GRAVE RITUAL - Morbid Throne
November 10, 2015, 8 years ago
(Dark Descent)
Alabama's Grave Ritual do up death metal right here on their second album (debut Euphoric Hymns From The Altar Of Death dropped a solid five years back, also on Dark Descent), the band channeling the sludge of legends like Incantation and Autopsy in brilliant ways. Seriously, if the sewer-grade doom/death of “Adversary Crown” isn't brilliance to you, you've pointed yer clicker to the wrong site; meanwhile, cuts like “Tyrant's Hammer” are punk-fueled, grind-influenced death metal the likes of which just aren't seen enough today.
The whole thing is drenched in an appropriately grimy production sound and delivered with a smart 32-minute run time, all of which conspire to make this one very good album, Grave Ritual's main stumbling point being a bit of a lack of personality (no way am I guessing who this is with a blindfold on), but maybe personality isn't really the point when you're covered in slime and drowning in beautiful, beautiful death metal. Not that you'll necessarily have the courage to make it to the end of this killer of an album, but if you do, the closing two cuts, “Behind The Reigns Of Gods” and “Throne Of Continuum” are a grinding, crawling duo of deathly delights that are absolutely worth sticking it out through the rest of the excellent torture.
