Back From The Grave

You Will Never See… Heaaaaaveeeeeeen. Ten years ago my speakers were screaming like maniacs. You'll Never See… is an album I have listened to tons of times in the early nineties and one that I haven’t listened to for the last 5 or 6 years. Grave is Back From The Grave, and it’s damn true. The band has been on hiatus for the past 6 years almost, and everyone thought they had parted ways, but the guys reunited last year to come up with their fifth studio album.

The first surprise for me, since I have not bought their 1996 Hating Life album, is that Ola Lindgren handles the vocals duties since the departure of former vocalist Jorgen Sandstrom (looking at the band picture, this guy reminds me a lot of former Pestilence vocalist Martin Van Drunen). Secondly the band is now a quartet with the addition of a second guitarist. But let’s get to the point, Back From The Grave is a true masterpiece. This is the kind of album you just can’t take out of your CD player. If this album was to last forever, I would go to the very end. The band definitely knows how to handle loud and heavy grooving classic old school death metal in the pure Swedish tradition. The band's music and sound is more mature than ever and functions like a well-oiled machine. After a short intro, the album starts off with one of the best opening riffs I have ever heard in death metal and the overwhelming use of groove pounding metal continues through the nine remaining songs. The band has a lot in common with British war masters Bolt Thrower and Dutch Asphyx. No need to play very fast to be damn heavy. I know quite a few bands that should take example by this Swedish outfit by the way. This is an album many have been eagerly awaiting for and it was worth the wait.

As a bonus for their fans who buy the first pressing of the album, there's also a second CD featuring the three demos from 1988 and 1989. Most of those songs appear on their first album, Into The Grave and on their second album, You’ll Never See… It reminds me when I was doing my fanzine with my friend and we were gathering demos from all over Europe. I bet it would be cool to get to my cave and unbury some of them.