ALBUM REVIEW: King of the Silent World – Graveir

GRAVEIR are one of the many hidden gems within Australia’s brilliant black metal scene. The Brisbane quintet, formed in 2014, have developed a small but respectable reputation for producing some incredibly powerful and catchy atmospheric black metal with their debut album, Iconostasis and their fantastic 2018 EP, Cenotaph, gradually building a significant aura around this talented and mysterious act. Their latest album, King of the Silent World, sees the bands sound not only become more expansive, but also more focused, resulting in what is perhaps one the best best atmospheric black metal offerings of the year so far.

Charnel Bacchanalia starts the album off with a dark, brooding slab of slow black metal with eerie, catchy guitars and acerbic vocals that help to make this an incredibly impressive opening effort. It’s got a huge morose sound that draws the listener in straight away, setting a lofty bar for the rest of the record. Scaphism is a short, but interesting, piece of music that provides a sharp contrast with the previous track, with more a energetic and aggressive approach to the songwriting. It’s got a great, chaotic sound, and has some excellent leads that inject plenty of melody into this brief, yet brilliant, track.

The Fetch of Crooked Spine is another slow, doom-laden offering with lots of great hooks that make it as memorable as it is bleak. It’s shrouded with a thick atmosphere that gives it a grandiose sound, and is peppered with dense, cacophonous moments, proving to be one of the records early highlights. Bathed in Acheron, with it’s lighter guitar tone and cavernous drum sound, prove to be a slight change of pace that works incredibly well, throwing some elements into the album that give it a softer edge, whilst still maintaining the rhythmic depth from the bass and drums.

In Remnant Light carries the sound of the previous track forward, but manages to be far more driven and focused, with feral vocals punishing rhythms and slick leads providing this track with some of its better moments. Immacolata has some incredibly varied musicianship, bringing in a wide range of riffs that do a great job of keeping this lengthier offering far more engrossing. It’s got some great, hypnotic sections in its second half and a glorious, expansive sound that do a fantastic job of drawing the listener in once again.

Waiting…, much like the last track, uses the tracks extended running time to its advantage, with much more imaginative and progressive musicianship on offer, and featuring some of the best drumming and guitar work on the whole album. It’s a brilliant track from start to finish, and proves to be the best outing on the whole album. Fodder for the Gears proves to be another great offerings, and takes the music down a darker and more demented route, with discordant guitars and powerful vocals making this brief track stand out for all the right reasons.

After the sprawling, but sadly forgettable Phantasms in Daguerreotype, the albums final track, Father, Devourer provides one last, epic offering. It’s a song with a monolithic, mesmerising sound, that manages to be one of the albums most dissonant numbers, whilst simultaneously shrouding the music in a cold, bleak atmosphere, giving this whole track a huge, impenetrable sound that it’s hard not to love. It’s an amazing end to an equally fantastic record.

With this album, GRAVEIR have produced what is arguably their magnum opus. With the exception of a single track, each of these songs is incredibly impressive, with a lot of excellent, catchy music and interesting flourishes that make King of the Silent World engrossing from start to finish. So good is this album, in fact, that it could see the band reach new heights, and establish GRAVEIR as a musical force outside of their native Australia, catapulting them to the forefront of the atmospheric black metal scene internationally.

Rating: 8/10

King of the Silent World is set for release April 17th via Impure Sounds.

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