ALBUM REVIEW: Conduit – Gravemind

Despite being one of the newest members of the Australian metal scene to gain momentum, GRAVEMIND feel like they’ve been a band for far longer than they have. Having a few EPs under their name already, the Australian deathcore group matches the intensity of fellow countrymen THY ART IS MURDER with the technicality and nuance of bands like NORTHLANE, to create what is easily the dark horse album of the year for any fan of the aggressive noise Australia has become renown for. Conduit feels to be a debut album by a band looking to make as big an impact as possible, and it’s as smart as it is powerful.

GRAVEMIND do not hesitate to immediately drop directly into their maelstrom compositions. The heavy, dense rhythms bolster the lead guitars that are there to create the swirling atmospheres that fill Conduit with a real tangible sense of dread and anticipation for most of its run time. There is a real hearken back to the original days of deathcore, as suffocating blankets of sound following crushing breakdowns to create an impressively dense musical landscape. Volgin is a prime example, and is a song that goes through so many different iterations before finally resulting in a deafening breakdown with wretched screams buried deep in the assault. It’s fucking excellent.

In fact, it is worth mentioning how incredible the vocal work of Dylan Gillies-Parson is throughout Conduit. He is more than capable of jumping from powerful screams through to impassioned howls, displayed best on the slower and more deliberate Hard Rain. The lyrical work, when paired with the delivery, becomes one of the true stand outs of the album as a whole as well. Like in Phantom Pain, where the bridge brings with it a deeply moving passage about a child’s desperate need for guidance when growing up, and the importance of accepting parenthood as a deeply important role for a person to take on as opposed to leaving and hurting those closest. These topics are ones that are rarely tackled from these perspectives, often instead taking on the aggression that abandonment can leave behind, GRAVEMIND offering a new view is as refreshing as a lot of the music on Conduit.

If anything, there is a bit of a disparage in the themes here, and some are met with better grounding than others. Looking into topics from the ethereal to the personal and back again, GRAVEMIND would see their razor-sharp approach founded even more lethal with a consistent and a better thought out message to deliver. Whilst Conduit instils a sense of personal anxiety, fellow genre mates ALPHA WOLF have done this more successfully through a far more intrinsic sense of message in their music. Despite this, GRAVEMIND have the blueprint to truly follow, and potentially even transcend the work that NORTHLANE have done over their career, and that is a truly exciting prospect.

Conduit is a truly flattening debut from a band that are clearly intent on making everyone aware of their existence. Fusing the best elements of their fellow countrymen into a thoughtful, brutal, and fluid musical offering, GRAVEMIND are a fresh new beast to join the deepening roster of incredible bands to come out from down under. Easily one of the most impressive debut releases of the year, and a release that instantly makes GRAVEMIND a very interesting band to follow in the coming years.

Rating: 9/10

Conduit is out now via Greyscale Records.

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