GRIEVED - Grieved
March 7, 2016, 8 years ago
(Prosthetic Records)
This is the sort of thing that Prosthetic does best, and I wish they'd do more of: interesting, forward-thinking but hard-hitting metallic hardcore. The bio for this Swedish band name-drops Raised Fist, but I'm thinking a bit more dense and obtuse, like Breach: the grooves are there for this Swedish band, but there's more of a difficult sludge feel right off the bat, with opener “Oraque” being a distorted mid-tempo piece of hardcore that reminds me of Burst before they turned into Opeth. Excellent second cut “Fogbound” begins to cut harder emotionally, and third song “June 22” is just a distorted guitar interlude of sorts, but one that actually hits hard. Really, I can't stress enough how much this band hits hard, and just how awesome that is. How often are you moved by a hardcore or metal album? Not enough. It's a glorious feeling when it's done right, and Grieved do it all over this 28-minute killer of a debut, the band evoking cool, dark, chilling Swedish hardcore bands of years past like Within Reach, and the forward-momentum groove of “Shattered” and morose atmospheres of “Synesthesia” just solidify the fact that, yeah, this is a sound and a lineage to respect and it goes something like Breach to Raised Fist to Within Reach to Burst to Grieved, and this is a part of Swedish extreme music we should be talking about more often. A stunning debut.
