This is the third album from US grinders Deathgrave.
Here we have 32 minutes of deathgrind, shot through with elements of thrash, mathcore, and doom. Deathgrave smash it all together into ten nasty tracks that are hideously good fun.
Hell Is Evil is a snarling beast of punk-fuelled, thrash-edged brutality and carnage. However, there is more melody and mood-focused structuring than you might expect; a one-dimensional blast fest this is not. Deathgrave have written their songs with more than simple aggression in mind, and incorporate a range of different elements. This means that across the album you’ll find tense leads, crawling menace, rusted hooks, interesting riffs, dissonant venom, and more. Around these sit outbursts of grinding ferocity, insectile mayhem, vicious deathgrind belligerence, and pure death metal heaviness.
Each track on Hell Is Evil fuses its component parts together in different, yet complementary ways. Broadly, think of a mix of bands like Brutal Truth, Crowpath, Ghoul, Iron Reagan, and Insect Warfare, and you’ll get a decent idea of where Deathgrave are coming from. It’s a compelling mix of various sorts of extremity. Whether straightforward hostility or contorted rage, whether building an emotive atmosphere or cutting right to the bone with lethal intensity, or whatever else, Hell Is Evil offers a lot of bang for your buck.
You could call Deathgrave ambitious with this new record of theirs, but really they just make it sound easy. This music recalls the earlier days of grind, where acts like the aforementioned Brutal Truth were taking their influences and experimenting with them, pushing them further and further. Deathgrave are doing their own version of the same thing, and they’re definitely succeeding with it. This is deathgrind with both thought and feeling put into it. And do you know what else? It’s an absolutely ripping listen.
Words like interesting, engaging, effective, enjoyable, etc. are all relevant here. Deathgrave have crafted a cohesive record from diverse extreme metal influences that has seen them produce their strongest work to date.
Essential listening.
Wonderbox Metal 