Graves At Sea - The Curse That Is - review
Graves At Sea - The Curse That Is - review
Tracklist
01. The Curse That Is02. Dead Eyes
03. Tempest
04. The Ashes Made Her Beautiful
05. This Mental Sentence
06. The Waco 177
07. Luna Lupus Venator
08. Minimum Slave
A review by
Auntie Sahar May 28, 2016
The music of Graves At Sea can basically be described as meat and potatoes doom. There are few nuances or tricks to the game being played here on their The Curse That Is debut, but in many ways there don't necessarily need to be. As is the case with, say, Conan, the tracks here are simple, hard hitting, and groovy, and somehow that's all they need to be to have the effect of being pretty decent bangers. The only real complaint that can be made here is that the tempo of the band seems to variate very little throughout this album, if at all. It's a pretty minor issue, but I for one would've found it a little more interesting if Graves At Sea had picked up the pace a bit here and there into faster, sludgier terrain, a la High On Fire, perhaps. And yet, that's not what these guys are really about, for better or worse.
With most tracks clocking in at the 7 minute + mark, one would think that such a simplistic formula would begin to lag after a while, but this is far from being the case. Somehow Graves At Sea manage to take enough twists and turns to make things interesting, while still keeping their approach direct and to the point. "Dead Eyes" is an excellent example, with how it transitions into just drum and bass around the 7 minute mark, continues banging out for a while, and then ends with a more relaxed, atmospheric ending. Most pleasantly surprising of all was "The Ashes Made Her Beautiful," with the beautiful violin work that opens it. This would almost feel gimmicky if not for the fact that Graves At Sea later continue to weave this instrument in and out of the rest of the 15 minute track. It would indeed be interesting to see what would happen if the band expanded on this type of sound more.
On the whole, The Curse That Is is a fairly strong "debut" from a band that have until now just been dropping small glimpses of their real potential. While their previous demo and split EPs have certainly had quality material, they've been mere teasers, appetizers of sorts. With The Curse That Is, however, we finally get the full course. And it's quite a tasty one, indeed.
Bring the fork and knife. You'll need it.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by Auntie Sahar | May 28, 2016
Comments
Comments:
7
Visited by
164 users
|
Posts: 63  |
Posts: 63
I was just checking this out today on bandcamp, and voila here's the review! Big thumps up man.
Loading...
|
 Posts: 5989 |
Posts: 5989 Written by Maratha on 28.05.2016 at 21:13 Thanks! I first discovered these guys when they were playing at Roadburn 2014. They clashed with Bong though, and I settled on Bong (right choice), but it's cool to see them with a debut finally out. Tis pretty sweet stuff
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
Loading...
|
|
Posts: 63 |
Posts: 63
Right choice Bong it is! Not the right thread here, but would definitely want to see them do their droney Sitar stuff live someday.
Loading...
|
 Posts: 9649 |
Posts: 9649
Absolutely loved the vocals on this one.
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...
|
 Posts: 64576 |
Posts: 64576 Written by Auntie Sahar on 28.05.2016 at 23:05 Roadburn is best place to discoverer such bands, bets fest for discovery IMO
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
|
|
Posts: 63 |
Posts: 63 Written by Bad English on 30.05.2016 at 00:12 Bad English is proper here! Off coarse Rodburn is amajing to discover neeu bands..! 
Loading...
|
 Posts: 40071 |
Posts: 40071
But most bands at Roadburn are already more or less known to most people attending that fest. It is only very seldom you really discover a new band at Roadburn. Graves At Sea was already quite the Household name for most people attending Roadburn, even though they hadn't released a full-length yet. Were they truly unknown they wouldn't have played Het Patronaat stage but would have bene put on in Cul De Sac that year.  But then again Walter and co do their job extremely well and Phone around asking questions about bands they want to book and what stage to put them on.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
Loading...
|
Hits total: 5741 | This month: 9