Graveslave

Minneapolis death metallers Graveslave unleash their debut album "Sick/Nasty" and the album is not only suitably named for its savage sonic assault and lyrical topics (the album is about a deranged killer detailing his murderous spree) but its also the best debut death album in quite some time. The band take no prisoners with their brand of precise death metal and demonstrate a mixture of technical flair and downright raw brutality.

Like Cryptopsy, Nile and Broken Hope before them, Graveslave are definitely doing some creative things with their brand of death metal and with a debut as assured as "Sick/Nasty" is, the band will certainly have a bright future ahead of them and their second album will be eagerly anticipated indeed. - Antichrist Magazine

Have you ever had flights of fancy about murder and general mayhem that would more than likely get you locked up? Haven’t we all ha-ha, so if that’s the case then this album is for you. I’m not in any way endorsing that sort of criminal behaviour, live and let live and all that tripe so if you go on a mass killing spree after hearing this then be it on your own head, or lack of after you get caught..

Get past the fact that the album cover may look like your twelve year old brother with an eighties fetish may have drawn it and you will find some seriously fucked up shit going on here. Basically the story of a murderous little bugger and the fun he has whilst self enabling. Not for the faint of heart.

Brutal death metal, probably not befitting this one very much, more like death metal well done, with a story to boot, and an ending that you can only find out about by listening to and/or reading the lyrics, which means you should probably buy the damn thing so I don’t have to explain it to you. Makes my day a little easier. - Transcending Obscurity

This Minneapolis-based death metal band have a lot going for them on this debut album, and I don’t mean just the guest vocals of Cryptopsy’s Matt McGachy on the opening track. Although that opening track is a goddamn terrifying experience, thanks in part to the vocal madness but thanks also to the slow, remorseless, blood-freezing viciousness of the music.

Graveslave deliver the horrors of the slaughterhouse in sonic form, but they’re also capable of sending you into the atmosphere on the back of a supersonic missile. While the opener is a doom-stricken miasma, the follow-on track (“Human Fluids (ooze)”) give the band a chance to show off their formidable technical chops, along with a display of their own highly demented forms of vocal madness. It’s a maniacal, often frenzied, but still razor-sharp onslaught of crazed death metal malevolence.

Yet the band have a deft sense of when to pull back on the throttle, and the dynamism of the songwriting is part of what makes this album such a thrill ride. It’s definitely not a non-stop maelstrom of obliteration. That slithery, soulful solo in “Human Fluids”, which transforms into a face-melter, is probably all the evidence you need. But more evidence lies ahead.

In a nutshell, this is an utterly wild, technically pyrotechnic, stunningly brutal fireworks display. It combines thuggish skull-cleaving with eye-popping explosiveness, slow, sinuous sensuality and gruesome morbidity, and solos that will make you drool. It makes sense that they turned to someone from Cryptopsy for a guest appearance, but that band is clearly only one of many influences.

Tremendously impressive stuff — and I hope you enjoy the hell out of it, whether it keeps you from strangling a motherfucker or not. - NO CLEAN SINGING

I present to you, the reader, an album chock full of what I can only explain as conundra. ‘Conundra’ I hear you cry? Well yes, this album delivered by Graveslave from the Twin Cities of Minnesota contains more than one conundrum, henceforth making it worthy of the use of such a word. Let me explain.



The first thing that is going to grab you is the cover art, and unless you are a huge fan of this band and it doesn’t worry you, then it MAY well make you wonder just what the heck is going on. Death Metal albums have been known to contain some of the most incredible artworks known to man, this one has, well, a very odd cover containing imagery that is suitable, and a lot of colour. Suffice it to say that I will let you be the judge, but if I picked it up at the record store, or however you buy your tunes, I would probably flick past it.



Never judge a book by it’s cover or so they say, so we won’t. Musically, the band members who refer to themselves as Doombringer on Lead Vocals, Plaguerness on Skins and backing vocals, Gutz on Bass and backing vocals, stAlkid on Rhythm Guitar and backing vocals, and last but not least Juice, on Lead Guitar and you guessed it backing vocals, are delivering a very solid album. They also have real names but you can find them yourself if you are so inclined.



How does it sound though? The only answer is like Death Metal. Nothing here is going to change the world, but it is actually pretty good. Guttural Vocals that sound not unlike a Demon born to possess or a man throwing up into a very acoustic toilet. On one song the band even breaks into the Old School chanting chorus thing so beloved of early days Thrash Metal bands. Chainsaw Guitars, blasting drum beats galore and a bottom end heavy enough to be called a Booty. Not too bad at all.



On the odd occasion they even break into some quite lovely slower pieces, although I felt that occasionally they almost seemed to falter just a tad. You probably may not even notice. For the full on Old School effect, they even chuck in an instrumental piece, something that was pretty much a given back in the day.



This album isn’t going to change the world by a long shot. For the squeamish I advise you to go nowhere near the lyrics as they are about a murderous bastard who likes nothing more than words that start with D: Dismemberment, Disembowelment and general Devilry that you may find Disgusting. I found them amusing but that’s another story. - Moshpit Nation

Minneapolis’ Graveslave bring some of the nastiest, goriest, brutal death metal this side of Florida on their new album, Sick/Nasty. The band have been making waves in their local scene, and they are now starting to earn the recognition they so deserve more broadly. In a year of spectacular death metal releases, this is another welcome addition to the family.

The opening track, “Partially Reassembled in Utter Disgust,” features Cryptopsy’s Matt McGachy on guest vocals and is nothing short of brilliant! It’s brooding, dark, and heavy, reminding me more of Cannibal Corpse with Chris Barnes on vocals than anything else. “Human Fluids (ooze)” picks up the pace and really shows the band’s full capabilities. The riffs are crisp and razor sharp, and the vocals sound like they’re straight from the seventh circle of Hell. This is death metal the way it was meant to be! “Slit Throats and Garrote” continues the pummeling, and the guitar work and solos here are especially awesome. The middle break slows it down a bit and showcases some more fantastic guitar before building into a massive, all-out assault. “Methods of Murder” is a pure death metal feast. It chugs along like an out-of-control train until about three-quarters of the way through when it slows for a melodic, crushing guitar solo. “Wallow in Filth” starts haunting and slow, then builds and churns amid heavy riffs and heavier vocals. The pace picks up and the turns the song into an eight-minute opus. It’s a hell of a way to go out of the album!

While Graveslave aren’t breaking any boundaries with Sick/Nasty, they have one hell of a solid death metal album. - Skullsnbones

Minnesota’s GRAVESLAVE are relative newcomers on the Death Metal scene. Having only formed a year ago, the five piece had barely got their demo out before following it up with this, their first EP. Clocking in under twenty minutes, "Corpseborne" shows off some nice technical chops and is entertaining enough to make them worth watching out for in the future...

Also, we should make it absolutely clear right now: this is Death Metal, not Deathcore. The boundaries between those two genres have become increasingly blurred of late but GRAVESLAVE have definitely taken more from the fetid Florida swamps than they have from Arizona and Southern California. They rarely slow the pace and actually get faster as the EP progresses, the climactic "Surgical Extraction Of The Soul" has an introduction so fast it could outrun Usain Bolt and the final thirty seconds is indescribably manic.

Elsewhere, the likes of "All That I Despise" and "Divine Flesh" are reliably violent outbursts of old school fun. The former especially has a nice malevolent groove in the middle that recalls some of PHIL ANSELMO’s nastier side-projects and they won’t disappoint anyone looking for brutally heavy sonic extremity. The highlight though is third track "Dissect And Dispose," which manages to be no less vicious than the others, but also shows off the dexterous fingers of the two guitar players. Roman Johnson and Ian Zachary must have rehearsed their scales for months to dart up the fretboards as quickly as they do here.

All of which makes "Corpseborne" an impressive start for GRAVESLAVE. - Metal Temple