Artist: Gravesend
Album: Methods Of Human Disposal
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Release Date: 19/02/2021
Country: United States
Let’s take a look at Gravesend and their upcoming full-length album Methods Of Human Disposal, set to be released this Friday on 20 Buck Spin, in partnership with Earsplit PR.
Gravesend hail from New York, New York and play a filthy and savage blend of grindcore and black metal with powerviolence, doom, sludge and death metal influences and a handful of noise elements. This is their debut full-length release and follows their 2020 demo Methods of Human Disposal. The band is a three piece featuring A (guitar, vocals and synth), S (bass, backing vocals and synth) and G (drums). The album was recorded in September 2020 by Nolan Voss of Thirty Legion, mixed by Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Tomb Mold, Xibalba), and mastered by Brad Boatright (Obituary, Vastum, Terminal Nation).
I hope you’re ready to be assaulted, both auditorily by the music on this album and emotionally and spiritually by its lyrical content and themes. This album is dark and heavy and I’m not just talking about instrumentally, the overall energy and concepts present on the release are somewhat soul crushing. They bring to mind the themes of bands such as Dystopia that focus on human suffering and hardship and feature a general disdain for humanity and society as a whole. Earsplit PR described the album as “An aural manifesto of urban blight and disgust,” and I fully agree with that statement. If you need any convincing of this simply watch the music video for the album’s single Needle Park (included below the review).
This album is fueled by spite, disgust, hatred and suffering and that permeates the music itself. The fusion of black metal and grindcore is always something that I seem to find great enjoyment in. Something about the raw unbridled aggression of grindcore mixed with the rawness and misanthropy of black metal just makes for a perfectly horrifying partnership. The elements of doom, sludge and death metal thrown into the mix make things that much more interesting and give the album a little added heaviness at times. They also slow things down every so often, which gives the listener a brief (very brief mind you) break in the ceaseless assault that is this album. The inclusion of some harsh noise elements (particularly on track 9 Eye For An Eye with swarms of rats scurrying and screeching) adds a little extra depth to the release and makes it hit home that much harder.
The guitar work on the album is frenzied for the most part, bringing as much aggression as possible to the mix. Having said that we do get variety in the mix, riffs and hooks take on elements of the band’s other influences, such as doom/sludge elements. For the most part though we shift between grindcore and black metal elements. The drums are absolutely assaulting on this album, they create waves of noise that ceaselessly crash down upon the listener. The bass work on the album is heavy, dirty and equally as aggressive, adding one more layer of heaviness and noise to the mix. The heavy use of synth by not one but two members of the band help to really flesh out and expand on an already massive level of sound. The vocals on the album are for the most part a black metal take on grindcore vocals, being raw, grating and screeched. There’s a level of hate and malice present in these vocals that completes the overall tone and atmosphere of the album and without them it wouldn’t be what it is. On top of those though we get some more death metal/grindcore vocals added to the mix at times, even having some incredibly aggressive layered segments where they overlap. As mentioned, the use of noise elements help to complete the overall sound of the album, particularly audio clips such as the spoken word parts in the album’s intro track Fear City or the cacophony of rat sounds on track 9 Eye For An Eye.
Overall, this is a truly abbrasive release and one that I personally can’t get enough of. Some people will definitely find this too harsh and assaulting for their tastes, but for those of you who like their music to hurt them, you will love this album. So, take some time out of your day and check out the pre-released tracks and video and get your pre-order in today or come back Friday to hear it all.
Listen to and order the album below:
Bandcamp:
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