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GRACELESS "Icons of Ruin"
GRACELESS "Icons of Ruin"
By Dr. Abner Mality
There's always been something special about Dutch death metal. There are a lot of great hands from the Netherlands and somehow they all have an accessibility that's smooth yet still utterly heavy. Let me toss out names like ASPHYX, SINISTER, GOD DETHRONED and GOREFEST as proof. Now we can add GRACELESS to that list. These guys have that patented "Dutch crunch" down pat.
"Icons of Ruins" is not the fastest, most brutal or most technical death metal out there. What it has an abundance of is RIFFS! Thick, fat, rubbery riffs that rumble like a Panzer across your skull. Lots of similarities to ASPHYX and old GOREFEST here, but GRACELESS keep their own identity. "God Shines In Absence" and "Sanctified Slaughter" have those ASPHYX and BOLT THROWER riffs to spare and there's a certain catchiness that just sinks in deep. Even the vocals of Remco Kreft have that typically "Dutch" sound to them...sounding a lot like one time ASPHYX singer Ron van de Pol.
"Lash Me To My Painful Death" and "Night of the Slain" further emphasize the strength of GRACELESS' songwriting. The latter song in particular has a kind of elegance to it...melodic death metal but NOT in the typical Gothenburg style. It's something meatier and chunkier. However, the album does have a weak spot with two tracks in the second half. "Rise of the Blackest Sun" just comes across as achingly typical and rather generic while "King of the Filth" is not particularly strong. But the band bounces back with a wonderfully gloomy "Beneath Starless Skies" which is almost a funeral doom track with its extremely weepy and melancholy melodies. The album ends with one of the best tracks, "Resurrection of the Graveless". This song packs more power and killer hooks into 3:40 than a lot of albums,
Although not quite perfect, "Icons of Ruin" is also not terribly far from that description. If there's such a thing as death metal that's heavy yet accessible, this would be it.
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