(This is Wil Cifer’s review of a new album by Bay Area grindcore fanatics Deathgrave. It’s set for release on August 21st via Tankcrimes.)
2023’s It’s Only Midnight was pretty decent, but Deathgrave have perfected the kind of thrashing chaos they kick up with Hell Is Evil.
The title track that opens the album finds their songwriting falling into place with an organic yet polished sound that emerged from their most recent trip into the studio, having expanded into writing three-minute songs that give them more time here to develop the song rather than just dealing in angry bursts. “Hard to Swallow” has a dark, deliberate, doomy riff arising to lumber over things, due in part to the fact this band features ex-members of Graves at Sea . At times the vocals sound like they could be from a Carnivore album thanks to the way they are shouted. “I Am Here” runs death metal fury through a grindcore filter, while solidifying the punk attitude.
It only takes the first three songs to convince you that they have made songwriting more of a priority.
photo by Matthew Kadi
The vocals are more varied, with shrill blackened shrieks and low death gurgles, along with variations on the snarled spectrum. “Born From Death ” is the first song where brutality is allowed to reign over all else, with a dissonant punk riff clanging in the background at times to break it up. The harrowing “Smaller and Smaller” finds the darkness of the song taking things in a more sludge-ridden direction. They descend into the occasional blast-beat for “Smaller and Smaller,” which, at almost four minutes, is one of the album’s longest songs. The first five songs alone are more dynamic than the entire last album
“It’s Only Midnight” finds the vocals serving more purpose in the chorus to make it work, and a large dose of thrash riding the song. “Yaws 3D” shows them playing a punk-tinged death metal, which, in some ways, is the definition of grindcore. “Your Pain is Ready” brings a more extreme beating to your ears, and they rip into “Won’t See You in Heaven” before the bass takes over. The dense bass tone brings things down into the doomy crush of the lingering tempo. It’s darker and heavier like this than when they are spazzing out. Many moments on this album might bring a band like Goatwhore to mind when things speed up.
The last song (“27B/6”) finds the band launching into rough-edged death metal, with the vocals varying in coarseness; for this reason, a band like Entombed might be a fair point of comparison.
This is the sound of what happens when grindcore grows up. Fans of the more feral punk-tinged offshoots of death metal would be advised to give this album a listen. Overall, it proves it does not matter how heavy or intense your sound is; there is always time to slow down and create memorable songs, without having to sacrifice the confrontational elements of your sound. This is the primary reason why this is one of the best albums on the more extreme side of things so far this year.
https://tankcrimes.bandcamp.com/album/hell-is-evil
https://deathgrave.bandcamp.com/album/hell-is-evil
https://www.instagram.com/deathgrave408