Once in a while a release comes along and grabs you, making you sit up and take notice…….
This 24 minute, 4 track EP from Canadian one man project Old Graves did exactly that with me, and after several spins, it remains my favourite current release.
Okay, so atmospheric/progressive black metal is my preferred subgenre, with the likes of Agalloch, Fen and Panopticon featuring heavily on my turntable, giving Old Grave a bit of a head start when this release was pointed in my direction, but credit where it is due, this is a stonking release.
The four tracker begins with “Kestrel”, an emotive instrumental (which brought to mind the guitar work at the beginning or Sabbat’s “Advent of Insanity”), setting the mood nicely before launching into “Dawn Treader”, which see Colby Hink’s feral screams buried within melody laden black metal, taking the listener on an emotional aural journey.
“Hang My Remains from the Crescent Moon” is the EPs longest track at 8:39, and is an epic masterpiece. Whilst being a little less aggressive, it creates a dense and hypnotic atmosphere that simply sounds massive.
Things are brought to a close with the title track which begins in a blasting, destructive manner, before moving through a variety of soundscapes until things fade out with the sounds of a crackling fire, and all too soon this experience is over.
Each subsequent listen brings new layers and depth to this release and even after several listens, I suspect I have only just scratched the surface,
(9/10 Andy Pountney)
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