First- just look at the cover… (courtesy of renowned fantasy artist Daarken whose work you’ve have seen grace games like Warhammer Online and Warcraft games ). FUCKING LOOK AT IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If that doesn’t make flaming metal skulls shoot from your cocks/vaginas, you simply don’t like metal.

Second, how in the fuck is Arkansas’s Vore still not signed, how is this album still Self Released? Especially with THAT  cover??????? Jungle Rot is on Victory Records for  crying out loud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I reviewed this band’s excellent (also self released) second effort Maleficus back in 2005, and speaking of Jungle Rot, I made a direct comparison between the two bands. Vore play a similar style of mid paced, chugging, simple, but downright effective form of death metal that’s no frills and completely un-inventive, death metal but (also like  Jungle Rot‘s surprisingly good last CD, Kill On Command) it just hits the goddamned  spot.

The production is clear and hefty, and the vocals are bare bones deep growls, but Vore need no window dressing as Gravehammer is all about the riff. Huge, thunderous almost doomy death metal riffs that lumber and lope like WWII battle tanks and covering machine gun fire. And while Vore may not be a ‘war metal’ band , their overall tone and gait certainly imbues all things, fiery, metal-y, shrapnel-y, destruction-y and war-y.

From opener “The Cruelest Construct” to closer “Sacerdotum Tyrannis”, Vore aren’t trying to make you like them, aren’t trying to wow you technicality or force any old school nostalgia down your throat. They just play death metal. From the groove half way into the opener, to the huge opening rumble of “Doomwhore”, to massive middle section of the title track, epic “The Claw is the Law” and the final, huge, militant march of “Progeny of the Leviathans”, Gravehammer delivers huge, satisfying 4- 8 minute chunks of double bass salvos and controlled, menacing hefty riffs meant for true death metal fans.

With nary a blast beat in sight, Gravehammer, simply bludgeons and rumbles with a Bolt Thrower like precision and pace. And while my 2011 year end list may have the likes of Obscura, Origin, and Ulcerate on it, you can bet Gravehammer will still be a heavy rotation for a long time to come. It just has  a throwback, honest feel that reeks of death metal’s true, original tenets.

Buy this.

 

 

 

[Visit the band's website]

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