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GRAVETAKER "Sheer Lunacy"
GRAVETAKER "Sheer Lunacy"
By Dr. Abner Mality
GRAVETAKER is two Finnish dudes going by the handles "Lunatik" and "Atavistic Mouth" and brother, do these cats like their death metal old and crazy. The album title is dead accurate as the music seems written by guys sick in the head. This is ancient sounding in a way that even many other "old school" death metal bands could scarcely comprehend.
It does indeed harken back to elder names like PUNGENT STENCH, DEMIGOD and the earliest Swedish death metal. We have 5 tracks that have a rotten and gnarly sound that is unpredictable and almost progressive in how it can switch moods and riffs on a dime. Three of the five start with ominous and quite mesmerizing acoustic flourishes before a tidal wave of foul and heavy filth hits you right in the gonads. The songs are full of chaotic dive-bombing guitar solos that sound as if the axeman is pursued by flesh-eating demons and he must keep them at bay with wild blasts of fretwork. The vocals are not the guttural stuff we're used to today; rather, they sound like a madman straining against a straitjacket. Mush-mouthed growls have lost the shock effect, it's time to get back to basics.
I can't emphasize how killer some of the riffs here are.At 4:25 of "Bacchic Enthusiasm", there's an amazing shift to something that almost sounds like an unhinged ATHEIST that made my jaw drop. Equally impressive are some of the swampy doom inspired chugs in "Aberrations". These moments catch you off-guard. And that's the secret of "Sheer Lunacy"'s success.
A wonderfully disgusting release of truly primal death metal...I heartily endorse GRAVETAKER!
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