Conflicting ideologies seem to spurn the best possible music. The black metal and death metal scenes fought against each other back in the early to mid nineties, jockeying for position on who “ruled the underground”. What came from the wreckage, however, were bands combining the best of both worlds to create an absolute unholy sound. Grave Miasma is a perfect example.
Stylistically old-school death metal with a tinge of the blackest-of-the-black helps in selling a sound that can best be described as “wretched”. Other adjectives need not apply; what Grave Miasma does with their music is truly monstrous. The wickedness that permeates through distorted guitars and thick webs of bass and drums is a wickedness that knows no boundaries; the sound only expands itself, bludgeoning all who are privy to it with its might.
Their first full-length endeavor, Odori Sepulcrorum, one ups the unsanctimonious style from previous efforts to craft a beast that bares its venomous teeth. The production value is ripped to shreds; favoring the old style of recording, the London act’s low-fidelity sound heightens the atmosphere the album creates.
Dense like fog, the opening track, “Death’s Meditative Trance” creeps into the subconscious with jaw-dropping heaviness, unearthly tonalities, and incantation-like vocals. Blast beats exist on the record; the black metal influence is there in spurts and punishes with breeds of unheralded power.
Grave Miasma are partial to the nails-into-the-dirt style of riffing; these crawls through the muck and mire exist on “Ascension Eye”, and, before things become stale, the band blast beats their way through. The riffs they create are chilling layers of texture, each forming and reforming like apparitions, intertwining where the other left off. They weave back and forth as the drums pepper away and the bass casts a shadow of merciless, throaty wickedness.
The title track is no different. In parts, Grave Miasma opts for speed and aggression. The other times, they slow the pace down, ripping and tearing through set boundaries of genre. Gone are the old cliches of horror flicks and general “spookiness”; the sickening sound of all the instruments put together devours whole. Their interlude isn’t even a break in the action. Instead, the chamber music sound scurries along, skittering across before segueing into “Seven Coils”. Harsh guitar sounds beget harsher drums. The sound becomes dizzying and exhausting; this type of claustrophobia radically defies conventions of genre. The last track, “Ossuary”, moves at such a slow pace but envelops with waves of sound that is unprecedented by death metal standards.
Grave Miasma achieves in spades where many others fail. The quartet harkens back the old style without ever repeating what was previously set forth. The atmosphere created is bleak and miserable, but ruthlessly cathartic. Odori Sepulcrorum is by far one of the most mind-bendingly heavy releases in existence. This is the sound of Hell opening its gates.
8.5/10
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