I am guessing that this lot are fairly well known back in Germany where they hail from, certainly compared to us in the UK. Seems to be a bit of a buzz about their return after they split up in 2017 after releasing 5 albums. They are also re-united with original singer Danny Hoff on this new lease of life and although classed as self-released have distribution via FDA records who sent this into us. Bellgrave are classed as death n’roll and likened to Entombed, Gorefest and old Pyogenesis but on first spin I immediately had to slightly disagree and say that stylistically to me this is more of an exercise in groove metal. I immediately got a strong whiff of nostalgia about it that took me back to the early 00’s when the band were starting out and this could have gone one of two ways. Obviously, time has moved on and it might not be the sort of thing many are listening to right now having put that phase of life firmly behind them, but you know what, the songs are good, they are catchy and hooky and above all really enjoyable. Perhaps nostalgia ain’t all bad after all!
Opening this 10-track salvo of grooves n’ growls ‘Nemesis’ confidently chugs out the tracks with plenty of ballsy confidence and melody about it. Clean guitar lines hit and the chorus is incredibly memorable. Vocals are perfectly placed and there’s a bit of a hardcore inflection about them but the instrumentation is allowed to simmer down with some underlying melody and clean singing that would not be out of place on a Type O Negative song. When they set controls to crush as on ‘Return Of The Gunmen’ there’s plenty to cite from everyone like Pro-Pain to Pissing Razors and naturally Pantera. This has the scope to appeal to a very large section of listeners, which is probably what makes it so enjoyable. Add a repetitive shout out of “Hate” and we can even add The Haunted to the mix. Of course, groove metal always had a slightly unwelcome cousin in nu-metal and it’s not impossible you might encounter a little Coal Chamber bounce around songs like ‘Kill Your God’ but some strangely compelling guitar picking gives it both an experimental and more modern sheen so it doesn’t sound at all dated. Although I can’t comment on past albums it seems like the group inject plenty of ideas into their songs here making them sound fresh and varied. The gabbling (sampled?) speech on ‘Enemies At The Ocean’ being a case in point.
Romping along at a fair old rate there’s little time to get bored here, besides your feet are gonna be busy bouncing along to the title track when you get to it and looking for the nearest raised platform to jump off. They even throw some completely surprise brass effects in on this one. There’s strings and a slight symphonic element on ‘Dying Times’ and keeping you guessing right to the end ‘Our Way To Eternity’ adopts a completely out-the-ballpark industrial / electronic edge and proves an excellent way to round things off.
So even if I didn’t manage to miss Bellgrave in the first place this strikes as a welcome return for them and as far as I am concerned a nice diversion from all the overly brutal and technical DM around at the moment.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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