Hardly a new name to me, these Australian monsters having been around since about 2004, but the first time I’ve actually tangled with them.

Opening with the charming, fly buzzing intro to ‘Death To Pigs’ the album squeals and winds up a nice bleak atmosphere before a solid, low end riff rumbles into a mid-paced ride. Guitar screams in discordant fashion before the low end comes back and the growled vocals hit. It’s a powerful but ponderous opener that kind of reminds me of some of the slower contemplative moments of Destroyer 666 with a heavier death metal vein (drummer and one guitarist are ex-d666 so fair enough). It has a neat knack of picking up pace to a gallop almost without me noticing and gives a good taste of their blackened death/thrash hybrid.

It’s a good production for this kind of thing too, the drums nice and clear without being slick and the vocals well drawn out. ‘Command For Conflict’ for example is a fine old rumble and the vocals have a nice, weird Teitanblood vibe that works well. Guitar breaks scream and swirl in a thrash style, the riff circles and repeats. Its direct, primitive in a good way and genuinely has the right amount of bludgeoning blunt force trauma.

Nocturnal Graves are not, it must be said, the most varied band around; all the songs here are built on the same foundations of low-end punishing bass drum and downtuned hammering riffs with guitar breaks squealing and screeching over the top. But when you hear a song as good as ‘Across The Acheron’ with its heavy machine gun beats and twisted vocals, or the in your face blast of ‘No Mercy For Weakness’ which comes hot on its heels you either get out of the way or just dive in. They can and do know how to play with tempo though and with the switches and switchbacks it never gets dull.

By the time I’m at the ‘Law Of The Blade’ I’m pretty much enthralled. It is intense and relentless and your head has to be in the right place but this dark and bass heavy racket is pretty spot on. A tar thick but still well produced void of black laden death metal with a thrash thirst for rolling riffs and speed. Teitanblood, Celtic Frost, early Destroyer 666 flung into the teeth of a steamhammer and sprinkled perfectly sparingly with some weirdness that just hints at old Portal in places like the intro to the closer and title track.

Yep. First album of the year for me and it’s a good ‘un. Solid, tight, blunt and brutal hammerblow thrashing death metal with more flair and interest in the compositions than you might expect.

I’ll take that for sure.

(7.5/10 Gizmo)

https://www.facebook.com/nocturnalgraves

https://nocturnalgravessom.bandcamp.com/album/an-outlaws-stand