One album that took me by surprise was the debut album of newly formed old school death metal influenced band Gravecarver. The album is titled “Spectral Carnage” and has been out for a little over a week now. If you’re not into the slamming brutal death metal side of things and constant blast beats, you’ll love the heavy nods Gravecarver gives on their debut. That unmistakable HM-2 buzzaw guitar tone from classic Swedish death metal greats is very prevalent but with a serious kick in the ass. I love the modernized update on that tone and always resonates well with me, and there’s even some melodies here and there to boot! Gravecarver gives you their all on their debut effort and here’s why you should listen and support the band.

The vocals are some of the nastiest set of pipes you’ll hear that isn’t a brutal death metal toilet gurgle. It’s so heavy and consistent they were made for this band. The best part……you can understand the lyrics easily! As much as I love my brutal death metal/slam it’s equally as impressive to have a heavy guttural and still understand the lyrics. The vocals are front and center powering the band’s vicious attack with those nasty guitar riffs and pocket drumming.

The Arizona brutalizers have outdone themselves with “Spectral Carnage” definitely unleashing the Carnage upon the unworthy human race. They have a thick, classic sound without emulating a specific old school death metal band. Now, there’s a decent amount of them that are Morbid Angel/Death worship (or whoever they are heavily influenced by) but Gravecarver carved (pun intended) their sound from a bunch of different styles of death metal. A little melodic and a little heavy, not necessarily leaning too far onto either side of the genre. I follow Arnold Plays Guitar on Youtube and greatly look forward to his weekly album suggestions on his channel. As a guitar player I love his takes on gear, but recently brought back his album of the week segment. He has an affinity for black metal and get a ton from his AOTW videos. However last week was about these guys. I was already caught at death metal, but I trust his taste. Boy was I not let down and have to thank Arnold I may have blown past this awesome debut if it wasn’t for his suggestion.

Gravecarver appeals to older and new fans of death metal and you won’t be let down by any means. Again, this is their first effort and it means the world to buy their merchandise/music especially with our worldwide situation. They surprised me big time and have listened to the album a handful of times within the past week. We have almost 8 more months left in the year and this debut HAS to make it onto my best of 2021 list. For now it’s definitely one of my favorites in the infancy of 2021. Go bang your head fuckers!

https://www.facebook.com/gravecarverband

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUdZ3AsV1douTgxXCeu-4tw