Gravehead

In contrast to their rather inconsistent and mushy 2001 offering, Grenouer’s 1999 opus “Gravehead” makes a better impression with a somewhat more orthodox approach to their claimed style. There’s a couple of elements detailing the edges of it, but mostly this is an exercise in late 90s melodeath, though it tends to avoid the overtly Iron Maiden oriented aspects of the Gothenburg scene and doesn’t overuse the tremolo riff. A number of the obvious clichés are avoided, but at the same time, this album doesn’t quite break out into the triumphant hybrid of anger and sadness that normally typifies the genre. It’s good, it exploits some nice atmospheric elements here and there, but nothing gets quite to the point of reaching out and grabbing the listener.

In spite of a general coasting nature to this album, it does have a couple of interesting moments. The first full length song “The Time Spool” has this unusual mid-tempo rocking feel to it that is almost happy sounding at times, almost like late 70s pop/punk done with guttural barks and a nastier guitar sound. “Down Under Dome Of Heaven” gets a bit more proto-typical and moves back and forth between a frenetic variant on Amon Amarth and the more Viking oriented black metal albums from the mid 90s. The ballad offering “Alone In The Dark” is also a bit interesting, although somewhat derivative of some older Metal ballads during Sabbath’s early 70s era (think “Sleeping Village” and “Planet Caravan”).

Largely the value of the purchase is relative to what packaging the album(s) in question come in. Taken together, “The Odour O’Folly” and “Gravehead” would fall under the category of bargain bin death metal, which is an all too common status for many modern bands of the later 90s. But if they can be procured individually, the latter is worth getting while the former could be skipped. Although not necessarily the best band out there, this one has put out some solid work, but it’s found earlier in their career, which is kind of a cliché, but nonetheless very true.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-obsever.com) as part of the 2009 double album reissue on February 1, 2011.

Things start off on a bad foot. "The Time Spool" has some interesting riffing in it, but overall the feel is almost happy. Not a good thing when Grenouer's concerned. The second song, "Under the Dome of Heaven" starts off kind of weak, with some acoustics and clean vocals (heavily accented), but then they hit back in the same style as on their first album. There's a really dark section in this song, with the drums playing a weird style, and the guitars playing a really simple riff over it, but it's got a great feel to it. "Alone In The Dark" is not a Testament cover, but a slow song. It's got a dark feel to it, but it sure doesn't live up to the rest of the songs on here, because it's a total departure from what Grenouer normally does. Sort of like "Planet Caravan" meets "Nothing Else Matters," except there is some screaming and growling when they choose to use electric guitars. At least they do use some death metal vocals on it.
I really like some of the ideas they tried out on here, but some just sound too damn happy. Otherwise, it's almost prog-death in places, just due to the sheer number of different riffs they use, but Grenouer hasn't lost their brutal edge. Some parts sound like Massacre, some like Death, and some like Metallica. The lack of consistency is kind of unsettling, because that was one of the elements that helped define the band on their previous outing, Border of Misty Times. If you can handle some experimentation in your death metal, you'll probably enjoy this. If not, check out Border of Misty Times.
I guess that after this album they went into a death n' roll style. I hate death n' roll, so I won't be buying any more Grenouer albums until I hear that they've gone back to their roots.