Album
Type : EP
Date
Released : 22/4/2014
Label
: Eolian Empire
This Place I
Poison, tracklisting :
01. This Place is Poison – 6:36
02. Orchid + Lord of This world – 13:13
02. Orchid + Lord of This world – 13:13
Bio
:
Following a
lengthy dormancy, notorious doom derelicts, GRAVES AT SEA, rise again! Now based in Portland
Tracked by
drummer Bryan Sours (ex-Subarachnoid Space) and Steve Lobdell at Audible
Alchemy and mastered by Ryan Foster at Foster Mastering on their home turf,
Side A’s “This Place Is Poison” finds the all-consuming, slow-motion sludge for
which the band is so synonymous flooding in with a torrent of crusted-over
guitars anchored away by swampy bass rumbles and earth-rupturing drums all
bathed in the howls and shrieks of the damned. But in shaking off their
cobwebs, GRAVES AT SEA have
emerged reanimated with a heretofore unheard speed, at least when compared to
their syrupy crawl of the past.
On Side B,
Black Sabbath’s “Orchid” and “Lord Of This World” get bold re-imaginings:
“Orchid” is eroded beyond its essence into a morose march towards death while
“Lord of This World” gets a grim reconfiguration with grisly riffs, bilious
hisses and a blackened atmosphere that takes the original to a dark, desolate
realm of desperation and despair
The
Band :
Nathan
Misterek | Vocals
Nick Phit | Guitar
Bryan
Jeff Mcgarrity | Bass
Nick Phit | Guitar
Jeff Mcgarrity | Bass
Review
:
Courtesy
of Arizona , by way of Portland
Side
A, “This Place Is Poison” is six minutes of fuzzed out swirling guitar riffs,
backed with screeching vocals accompanied by growling vocals. Musically, it's
quite typical of the Doom genre – tremendous breakdowns, slow grinding points of
rhythm and enough filthiness to fuel a tank! Lyrically, I understand very
little aside from the line “You can check out any time, but you can never
leave”; sounds awful familiar, then again the title is “This Place Is Poison”.
Side
B, “Orchid/Lord Of This World”. Of course we know this is a Sabbath cover and
what better of a place to put it than a limited 12”. As far as “Orchid” goes,
it has very little to do with the original piece; it's just meandering acoustic
passages filled with samples from what sounds like old school Hammer Horror
movies. If not for the samples, I'd probably write this part off, but those
samples add some much needed eeriness and depth for the grittiness of “Lord Of
This World”. Here is where the band promptly kick the Stoner/Doom vibe into
overdrive, the fuzz is strong, the breakdowns are sexy and having two vocalist
with extremely different voices work out nicely adding a new dimension to the
tune.
Overall
“This Place Is Poison” is nice work for an EP with one original track. Of
course most of us have heard Sabbath covered by the best and unfortunately the
worst. Graves At Sea does Sabbath justice and gives themselves some street cred
for the masses of the underground. Being a lover and a student of rare vinyl
releases, I highly recommend checking this out before it's gone.
Words by : Andy Burke
