Saturday, April 11, 2009

Into The Grave

This is one of the more important Swedish Death Metal releases of all time, and for good reason, it is an absolutely crushing bit of trenchant neanderthal death metal. Grave were removed from the burgeoning Stockholm scene of Dismember and Nihilist by geography. Grave lived on the secluded island of Gotland so they didn't have access to the records and fanzines that other Swedish bangers enjoyed, they had rocks instead. They also had each other and a strong bond built on isolation and a mutual love for the more extreme metal that was emerging in the early '90s. Eventually they had the good sense to relocate to Stockholm and enter Sunlight Studios, and Into The Grave was born. Not as refined as Entombed or Dismember, Grave sounded more like their roughshod surroundings, perhaps one reason why this record is just so heavy.

15 comments:

eric said...

Best of the Swedish scene. Hands down. There's definitely not the refinement of your ...Everflowing Streams, but yes, it's that roughshod caveman brutality that makes this album work so well.

Jorgen Sandstrom or death!

Terrorsathan said...

classic!

e normous said...

I'd take this over Entombed?Dismember any day.

Steven said...

Low-brow genius. I even kinda like their recent records.

Unknown said...

Thanks!!!

ifdead said...

Rad, thanks. Haven't heard this in years.

Deserts said...

sounds like it was recorded in a cave, just like death metal should

Todd said...

Steven, I resent the implication that being primitive is low-brow. Aesop, excellent post. We share a similar taste in "frown-inducing riffs."

kountchokula said...

I feel so stupid. 15 years of digging thru the used bins at Ameoba, Rasputin and Aquarius and there was always something more compelling to me than Grave so I never heard them until now. I effin love this. Thanks.

leibstandarte said...

This is the Tits!!! Gracias Mate

Pavel said...

I downloaded this two days ago and have been blasting it since then. This is now, without a doubt, one of my very favorite metal albums. Or punk albums...like the best black metal, this is punk as fuck. This is my first post on the blog but I've been following it for a couple months now, thanks so much for putting this stuff up. Even if I'm probably not gonna download something, I enjoy reading about it, because its often hysterical and I always learn something. Most important, though, I really appreciate the sincerity that shows through in the writing.

Anonymous said...

I want to see more 90's death metal gems like this. Maybe the first Seance album? Or early The Crown?

shipwreck said...

this is amazing, thanks for putting it up!

TLALOC said...

This is fucking amazing. Exactly the kinda stuff I've been looking for. Thank you so much for putting this up.

Anonymous said...

Is the CD or the LP of 1991 more worth???