Band:	Graveborne
Album:	Through The Window Of The Night
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	January 20, 2014
A review by:	Auntie Sahar

01. Burn The City Of God
02. Tiesi Päähän
03. Root Of Evil
04. Misericordia
05. Into The Abyss
06. In the End I Find My Beginning
07. Pyhää Verta
08. Todkrieg
09. Men Behind The Sun

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with more orthodox forms of music. While I do mostly tend to prefer boldly avant garde artists that push genre boundaries, I can still appreciate a more archetypal, conventional album every now and then. Through The Window Of The Night, the sophomore effort from the Finnish Graveborne, is one such album: a savage homage to black metal's past, which, while not very original, certainly packs a punch.

There's not much extravagance going on here with Graveborne's 2014 release: simply nitty gritty, raw kvlt black metal that's just oozing of obvious Marduk and Darkthrone worship. From the start of opener "Burn The City Of God," the band plunge the listener into a barrage of intense riffing, vocals from the pvrist depths of Hell, and a hailstorm of drumming sure to burst ear drums. The production also does the trick of adding a proper aesthetic to the work: it may be crappy, but this vibe of raw, low-quality mixing harkens back to the days of early BM, and effectively tops of the classic feeling of Through The Window Of Night.

Unfortunately, however, this is more or less all the album has to offer, and it doesn't get much more dynamic from there. All of the 9 tracks sound very similar to each other, with little variation in tempo or melody, that can make them all sound quite monotonous and lumped together. Upon my first listen, it wasn't until I actually looked at my Mp3 player that I noticed I was already on the fourth track, and not still on the first one. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for some good 'ol fashioned Marduk fanboyism, but not necessarily if it comes with such little diversity of sound. A guitar solo here or there, some clean vocals, or even just some slower tracks could've really helped Through The Window Of The Night to be more than the generic BM release that it more or less is.

Not too long ago, there was a forum thread on underground metal on here in which a user said something like "why sort through a bunch of underground bands that all sound like Band X when I could just listen to Band X?" Indeed, this latest effort from Graveborne justifies such a question. But taking it for what it is, I suppose that if you like your black metal raw, uncut, and as a huge monolith of sound that's simply relentless all throughout, then Through The Window Of Night may be a worthy album for you to check out.