Grave Lines: A Snap Shot Into The Human Psyche
Doom metal has a long and decorated history in the British Isles. From the first rumbling notes of BLACK SABBATH decades prior to catered and specialist festivals like Desertfest London, the UK’s appreciation for the slow riff has been a cornerstone for our heavy music scene. GRAVE LINES know this all to well. Although the London-based band have long utilised doom tropes as the bedrock of their sound, in actuality, their soundscape is much more multi-faceted through the incorporation of ambience, gothic passages and seeped in melancholy; as show on third album Communion.
“We always give consideration to things having an overall flow and not feeling too disparate, but ultimately all these other elements that come through are as important as the heavy/doomier sections,” explains vocalist Jake Harding as we begin to dive into their elaborate aural ecosystem. “From its inception we wanted this band to be less constrained in this way and leave plenty of room to let things grow in different directions and morph naturally.” Guitarist Oliver Hill adds, “I think the surprising thing about how we felt about the insanely multifarious nature of these song is, that we were totally confident in expressing ourselves with total freedom, using a musical vocabulary that spans our motley influences.”
Although a myriad of influences and contrasting elements may sound cumbersome on paper, on their third full-length record, GRAVE LINES achieve cohesion and immersion with aplomb, easily navigating the hurdle of third album syndrome. In the four year’s since their last outing, 2018’s Fed Into The Nihilist Engine, the makeup of the band changed and evolved, with new personnel coming through the door, something which had a direct impact on their hugely expansive sound that is present today. “There have been so many changes and challenges since that last album. Julia Charlotte Cooper [drums] is now a mother and she left the band after making the very hard decision to set up family with her husband far away from the bustle of London,” Oliver says. “Sam Chase was an obvious and very capable replacement. I feel like our style was inevitably changed quite a lot by his engagement in the writing process. Our whole psyche as a band changed and the way we communicate, write and attack the stage. This gave us an exciting new palate to work with and I hope the album shows how well we work together.”
“Lineup changes inevitably impact the way the music develops,” Jake adds. “But I think we’ve also always had an interest in progressing, experimenting, and trying out new ideas and this has certainly continued over the last few years as we intend it to moving forward.”
As is the case with bands worldwide, the impact of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns throughout the past two years turned the music world upside down. With tours and live performances killed dead in their tracks and the mental toll of isolation have bled into albums aplenty. Although lockdown had a direct impact on their creative process (“a lot of this LP was indeed affected by the lockdown restrictions during covid”), the overarching theme of isolation explored throughout Communion is more of a coincidence rather than being a direct influence. “I suppose there was something apt about the timing of it,” Jake explains “For me these kinds of themes of internal conflict have always been at the core of GRAVE LINES songs. More specifically the theme on this album is something that I’ve always found interesting. The contradictions that are present in our existence. This need for connection that we all feel but can only really achieve superficially. We never truly know what another is thinking or feeling. We all have impressions of each other but the person we perceive someone to be and who they are inside are never going to be the same. There’s an element of horror to it when you think of it that way. That you can be looking at an organism, while something completely ‘other’ and alien exists beneath the surface. Ultimately GRAVE LINES lyrics are ‘snap shots’ of thoughts and feelings. Following a thread of emotion and seeing where it goes. These do tend to be the more insecure, pessimistic thoughts but they are often the most fun to push into the extremes. There’s a real catharsis to pushing things to their most dramatic conclusion.”
Snap shots into the human psyche they may be, but there is something truly cathartic experiencing the might and weight of GRAVE LINES‘ newest effort. It pulls and moves you in a multitude of directions, pulling on a myriad of emotions throughout its runtime. And on the live front, this sense of catharsis will be even greater. “There’s an emotional purge with exploring these topics and performing this kind of music live and I think there’s a release that can be found in listening or watching it as well. It’s definitely something I feel when listening to bands like NEUROSIS. It’s a really enjoyable thing hearing how someone has connected with your music or what they’ve taken from lyrics or ideas in your songs. That’s something meaningful to us. Ultimately it’s just about getting something out of your system. It’s a great way to release some of the inner miserable git!”
Communion is out now via New Heavy Sounds.
Like GRAVE LINES on Facebook.
