Open Grave - Fear
This is the New Jersey Open Grave, not to be confused with any of the other groups out there sporting the same name. This band is primarily composed of current and former members of Helcaraxe, some of whom have also played with Krieg (live only) and Kult ov Azazel. For a Black Metal band, this album has a surprisingly Death Metal sound. The guitars are nice and thick and heavy. The riffing is also surprisingly Death Metal. It isn’t technical, but there are some solid head banging riffs with catchy melodies throughout Fear’s ten tracks. I was expecting this to be fairly Necro (read: no bass in the guitars) but happily, I was proven wrong. When I saw the names Krieg and Kult ov Azazel associated with this band, I assumed that they would share some of the same characteristics. That was not the case, and I’m glad Open Grave doesn’t have the same sound. This is some dark, brutal stuff. The inclusion of atmospheric, though somewhat minimalistic, keyboards and sparse piano bits only adds to the darkness. Hell, there’s even audible bass guitar on this album. My only gripe about Fear is the fact that it’s kind of short. That isn’t even much of a complaint, though. The songs never went overly long. I was just disappointed that it ended so quickly.
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