{"id":18167,"date":"2014-03-27T00:01:42","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T00:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=18167"},"modified":"2014-03-27T22:33:45","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T22:33:45","slug":"album-review-gravehill-death-curse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-gravehill-death-curse\/","title":{"rendered":"GRAVEHILL – Death Curse (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

GRAVEHILL
Death Curse<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nDark Descent (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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California\u2019s Gravehill may have released three studio albums since reforming in 2007, but it\u2019s been an unsteady ride for this quintet who originally formed back in 2001.<\/p>\n

Drummer Rhett \u201cThorgrimm\u201d Davis has been carrying the torch since the band\u2019s inception, but remains the only original member. Since 2007, Thorgrimm has been accompanied by bassist J.T. Corpse, vocalist Mike Abominator (who originally started out in 2007 as bassist), and the guitar duo CC DeKill (a hilarious take on Poison\u2019s CC Deville, no doubt) and Hell Messiah.<\/p>\n

Death Curse<\/em> is a welcome return for the band. Their second effort, 2011\u2019s When All Roads Lead To Hell<\/em>, was a tad tepid in my opinion, but this time round the combo have upped the ante and provided us with earthier dynamics. There is also the added bonus of guest appearances from Chris Reifert and Eric Cutler of Autopsy, and death metal vocal legend Kam Lee (Massacre, Death, Bone Gnawer). While lacking in originality, Gravehill have mastered the art of combining filthy blackened thrash with punkier elements as well as injecting a dose of old school grotty death metal that hints at Autopsy. <\/p>\n

After the customary introduction (\u2018Gates Of Hell\u2019) \u2013 which opts for the usual eerie atmospherics \u2013 we\u2019re plunged into the black \u2019n\u2019 roll sorry mess that is the title track, which comes fast, thick and furious like a suffocating black fog. It\u2019s the sort of dirty metal that\u2019s all the rage at the moment; pretty much no frills from start to finish with rasping, squawking vocals, which give the sound a decadent feel and yet which quite happily drift into deathlier gargles. The riffs aren\u2019t overly memorable, but that could be down to the fact that so many bands are choosing this weapon nowadays to make a living \u2013 so one can expect a squalid guitar sound, foetid, trashy drums and rusty solos which marry the whole infected grotto of grot together. \u2018At Hell\u2019s Command\u2019 sees the band at their most effective \u2013 well, initially anyway, because the track begins with a brooding intensity, before once again becoming a nonsensical noise-fest of unclean pace. <\/p>\n

Before you start thinking that this is probably how the album is throughout, though, take a moment to listen to the sinister strains of \u2018Open Their Throats\u2019 which, before it throws itself into suicidal anarchy, is in fact a really harrowing and doom-laden chunk of extreme metal. Easily one of the band\u2019s finest moments, it still manages to coagulate traditional metal with creaky death metal. It\u2019s just a shame the band don\u2019t do this more often on this nine-track affair. The guitars reek of menace, the vocals shape-shift but always remain gore-soaked, and the bass bubbles just under the surface as if a serpent of sores is about to rise from the clotted depths. <\/p>\n

The drum-led \u2018Fear The Reaper\u2019 features a fuzz-punk guitar and upbeat type of attitude you\u2019d expect from an old sweaty punk gig were it not for the vicious, rasping vocals and the traditional metal guitar which drives hard along the trash-strewn freeway. It\u2019s a catchy number that gives way to the blackened blaze of \u2018Unending Lust For Evil\u2019, which is a blistering attack on the senses. <\/p>\n

When the band remember how gloomy they can be, however, they vomit out another minor classic in the form of the festering wound that is \u2018Black Blood Rising\u2019, which again offers doomier shards to embed the thrashier elements. \u2018Crucified\u2019 does the same thing but becomes a real punk threat, and the closer \u2018The Ascending Fire\u2019 begins like some icy black metal fire and takes us down into the barbed wire mire with flailing solos and ever-changing vocals of death, destruction and dirt-choked deviancy. <\/p>\n

Of their three albums, Death Curse<\/em> is undoubtedly the best that Gravehill have presented. While it may not linger long in the memory, it still packs a rusty wallop.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GRAVEHILLDeath Curse Dark Descent (2014)Rating: 7\/10 California\u2019s Gravehill may have released three studio albums since reforming in 2007, but it\u2019s been an unsteady ride for this quintet who originally formed back in 2001. Drummer Rhett \u201cThorgrimm\u201d Davis has been carrying the torch since the band\u2019s inception, but remains the only original member. Since 2007, Thorgrimm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18167"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18231,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18167\/revisions\/18231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}