I don’t know about you but sometimes I get fed up with a lot of the over-produced, super shiny uber technical death metal out there. That’s not the sound that got me hooked on death metal in the first place. ‘Scream Bloody Gore’ & ‘Mental Funeral’ are not music production masterclasses. But we don’t care because it’s the feeling, the atmosphere and the songs that make them fucking awesome….. not some super knob twiddler with magic ears.
Anyway you can probably see where I’m going with this…… Grave Desecrator are PROPER! Primitive & bestial without sounding like an old lady falling down an escalator, aggressive & blasphemous without being cheesy. This Brazilian four piece are all about keeping in real & raw. Satan, bulletbelts, nail encrusted armbands and black leather…. Kinda like a South American Nifelheim. They ooze underground credibility (and probably other things) and have nailed it totally on ‘Dust To Lust’ their third album and first release on Season Of Mist.
If you have their previous LP – ‘Insult’ then you probably have an idea of what you’re gonna get here but….. this is a more sophisticated and varied record. Now, don’t get the wrong idea….. they haven’t gone all proggy, the songs are longer – the album closer ‘Perpetual Oath’ tops out at nearly seven minutes – but there is a variety of primitive bestial satanic lust crazed death metal here and that keeps me coming back to it. Probably because pretty much every track has an air of menace and brilliantly addictive caustic riffage from guitarists Butcherazor and Black Sin & Damnation .
Following the spooky intro we’re sucked into the blackened death vortex of ‘Temple Of Abominations’ which is like a helter skelter of frenzied thrash riffing and Butcherazors howling, bile ridden vocals before slowing down to an Autopsy pace for a bit then taking off like a cat with a banger up it’s arse to the finish line.
One of the more interesting tracks ‘A Witching Whore’ has a really cool doomy vibe and is apparently about an 18th Century prostitute from Rio who got into black magic and all sorts of other nasty stuff and murdered hundreds of new-born children in a bid to get a youthful good looks back….. obviously no Oil Of Ulay back in those days. It’s a cracking song with some awesome solos.
The whole album is immense and if you love a bit of early Kreator, Sarcofago and Mutilator then this is gonna be right up your street. A far better album than ‘Insult’. Brutal and raw, Grave Desecrator are the tip of the spear when it comes to Brazilian death metal.
(9/10 Mark Eve)
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