Organic – Where Graves Abound
Release Date: 22nd October 2021
Label: Testimony Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal
FFO: Death, Entombed, Nile.
Review By: Jordan Burton-Morris
The Italians are back! Sophomore album ‘Where Graves Abound‘ is set to release on the 22nd October. 40 minutes of old school death metal squeezed into 9 pounding tracks.
So here we go, a different style of review from my usual, as usually I’ll do it track by track and end up writing an essay. Today I thought I’d switch things up and do a slightly shorter review for variety (yes you can cheer.)
The album starts with opener Ropedragger, which opens orchestrally, contrasting to the remainder of the track which is filled with heavy blast beats, thick distorted guitars and deep gutturals. Waste Monolith is one of the singles released in anticipation, and it picks up where track 1 left off. A very nice catchy intro riff here, mixed with nice layered vocals. Also features a breakdown towards the end. Cool stuff. Schizophrenic Execution is next. The longest track on this album at 6 minutes 20. A nice slow intro, which is soon contrasted by the onslaught of blast beats, harmonised guitars and strong gutturals. Even though it goes on for 6 odd minutes, you wouldn’t know it. The ending is a bit weird though, almost doesn’t fit. Caged In A Tomb rolls in, and it’s another one of three singles released so far in anticipation. It starts with a riff that could easily be mistaken for a NWOBHM song if the feedback wasn’t playing over it. Of course, it descends into its usual chaos. The riffage on this one is some of the best on the album. Fall, Rot starts up with a simple grumbling guitar riff, and then descends into blast beats. Here is the first track with any massively obvious signs of bass. For the few seconds there are, it’s good. Next is Where Graves Abound, the title track. There is 2 seconds between this and Schizophrenic Execution. It starts with a nice reverbed clean riff, including a very nice bassline. An amazing piece of melodic work. Of course, it doesn’t stay this way. Soon the drums come crashing in, and the heavy guitars join in too. Eventually, this becomes the old school death metal song we expect from them. Die Schwanzdirn is the shortest track on the album, at just 1 minute 35. They waste no time in getting the blast beats out. Short, fast and sweet. The Howling is the penultimate track to this album. It starts with a great drum fill and then the onslaught begins. Quite a nice vocal pattern here too. Very nice melodic middle section before the pace picks up and the solo comes in. Not a massively impressive solo but it exists. Knives, the closer to this new Organic album. Also the third and final single released as of writing this). It begins in a start-stop fashion, before deciding on fast tempo. Quite nice how in control the drummer is. I like the little half-time segments that are sprinkled in. One thing I have learnt is that Organic like their feedback sounds, which is not always a good thing. The album ends the same way it began, orchestrally, but of course, with feedback.
Overall, the album is fairly solid, with some strong memorable riffs. Some of the tracks can be a bit too similar, but good on the whole. Definitely shows off some skills. Not an essential to death metallers, but fans of the genre could chuck this on and probably enjoy it.
(3 / 5)
