ALBUM REVIEW: The Oldest Gods – Graves For Gods
When the words gothic death-doom metal are mentioned, the first place you tend to think about likely isn’t Australia, which is more often associated with churning out gangs of either beer-drenched Rock n’ Rollers or savage, blast beat-obsessed maniacs into the global metal stew. Hoping to address these stereotypes however are Aussie newcomers GRAVES FOR GODS, who have just put out their debut album The Oldest Gods on French label Sleeping Church Records. Claiming to draw influence from the ‘Peaceville Three’ – that being PARADISE LOST, MY DYING BRIDE and the early works of ANATHEMA – the band seem intent on resurrecting a subgenre that hasn’t seen too much love in recent years, but do they have the ability to raise it from beyond the grave?
The Oldest Gods opens with FireTop Mountain. Immediately the listener is presented with a lurching riff which sounds like a HOODED MENACE bridge. Unfortunately, the bridge in question is one of the ones they would have likely placed in between two titanic riffs in order to give themselves a bit of a breather. It’s plodding, underwhelming and has a distinct lack of any real meat to it. Overall the track is not overly ambitious or memorable, but there is an OM-style ‘wandering in the desert’ kind of interlude in the middle part. There is a fairly bleak and all-encompassing atmosphere, but to be entirely honest when it comes to certain shades of doom, that’s fairly difficult to not achieve. Overall, FireTop Mountain isn’t a great choice for opener, as it sounds like a poor man’s Lost Paradise, something with no glint in its eyes or fire in its belly.
Moving swiftly onward, we arrive at Embalmed Embrace, which opens more promisingly with a wailing lead line draped over the rhythm section like a mourning lover, but still it sounds like something of variations on a theme. There’s not really much to the introductory riff but before long a strangely murky but clean passage arrives, starkly contrasted to the sluggish doom portions and giving a little bit of light to the all-encompassing darkness. It doesn’t last long though before the lumbering doom returns. Special mention must be made of the lead guitar lines in this track as it would be singularly difficult to follow without them. They’re the only thing keeping the song from smudging together into one big murky, charcoal coloured mess of power chords and floor toms. There is a reprise of the clean segment around seven minutes in with a nice wandering bassline and a cool bluesy solo, but then the distortion comes back on and they plod out the remaining three minutes in their go-to lumbering style.
Fortunately, the title track is probably the best example of what the band is trying to achieve. The Oldest Gods starts with that clean meandering sound and then builds into some both massive and cohesive death-doom riffing overlaid with soaring leads, making the whole thing very reminiscent of some of the brighter moments on AHAB’s The Call Of The Wretched Sea. It may be a late entry around 20 minutes through the album’s 40-minute runtime, but it’s a solid listen and the best thing GRAVES FOR GODS have done so far, feeling like an actual culmination of the ideas that have been on display for the last 20 minutes. It’s a real shame then that closer Wake is more of a return to the FireTop Mountain school of thought, a big SABBATH-esque riff put through massive block of distortion. Unfortunately, this is back to just being a slabbish, wafer-thin plodder of a track.
The word that could be best associated with The Oldest Gods is ‘frustrating’. The kernels of ideas are there, and the possibility is rife that GRAVES FOR GODS could very easily become the latest titans of pitch black death-doom metal, but they need to work on one very apparent point which can also be summed up in a single word – that word being ‘variety’. For starters, the riffs need work, a man cannot live on battering power chords alone, variety is desperately needed to avoid the tracks running into each other and becoming one big swirling mess. Secondly, some flair needs to be added in order to widen the band’s sound and grip the listener. Despite this, the framework is very definitely present for a solid Gothic or Turn Loose The Swans-style moment, but there’s still a long road through the graveyard yet.
Rating: 6/10
The Oldest Gods is out now via Sleeping Church Records.
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