Engraved in Black

Graveworm certainly appear to have some potential on paper. The "Italian" descriptor traditionally signals a distinct level of castration regarding the guitars and cleaner male vocals, but thankfully the band occupies a sub-genre that often thrives under a veil evoked by the inclusion of multiple disparate elements, so this doesn't necessarily sound the group's death knell on it's own. While I feel that Graveworm's more recent output caught a second wind of sorts with (N)Utopia, that album is indebted to Engraved in Black for laying the groundwork and shedding the antiquated skin the band so phlegmatically occupied up until that point.

For comparison's sake, many parallels can be drawn between Engraved in Black and post-Higher Art of Rebellion Agathodaimon. While Graveworm is an act that always has and always will rely on Mair's keyboards to carry the melodic day, I can't necessarily say that they pull their well-worn paradigm off very convincingly here. While Graveworm always goes for a lower key, classically-tinged aesthetic regarding their orchestrations (which thankfully avoid crippling levels of Baroque bombast), this actually ends up being one of Engraved in Black's biggest shortcomings. The riffs just aren't that great, as Unterpertinger and Righi repeatedly swap back-and-forth between quasi-venomous Old Man's Child lampoonery and more measured, doomy sections that single-handedly help Graveworm live up to the Gothic tag regarding the number of heavy eyelids induced alone. Without any strength of note, Engraved in Black can't help but come off as criminally boring. The riffs plug away in the background, the keyboards shamelessly blare in the foreground, and Fiori desperately shrieks over it all in a vain attempt at keeping the entirety of the proceedings metal. Just like most of Graveworm's less-than-stellar post-millennial output, Engraved in Black doesn't necessarily know what it wants to be at more than one juncture, and out of the other end comes a mess of influences and scattershot ambition.

While the epic opener "Dreaming into Reality" can't help but stand out thanks to the pleasant instrumental segue it wisely rides out on, nearly all of the rest of Engraved in Black is just sort of there. Times like this are where a competent clean vocalist can and should phase in, assisting in the accretion and eventual liberation of tension. Instead we get riff-driven "cookers" like "Abhorrence" and "Renaissance in Blood," both of which are delivered cold and well-past their expiration date. In fact, spoiled is a spectacularly accurate descriptive term regarding the majority of the riffs here, which are exposed as the place-holders they are without any input of marked value by Mair's synths. Some songs like "Beauty of Malice" feature nice melodies, but Flori's overacted, inane warbling completely neuters the plot. As such, it should come as no surprise that the (mercifully) instrumental "Thorns of Desolation" and "Apparition of Sorrow" are both worth a cursory glancing-over. The former is certainly the red-headed step child of the procession, and wouldn't sound too out of place on Skyclad album of Grave Digger's The Clans Will Rise Again - what with the bagpipes and all. "Apparition of Sorrow" is a nice little outro piece, and proves that Mair still has the chops to deliver some respectable arrangements, so what gives otherwise?

This leaves us with the sizable elephant in the room that is the infamous cover of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion." This track's reputation has far exceeded that of Engraved in Black itself, although one could conceivably argue that this was the band's idea from the beginning anyway. To deviate from character momentarily, I have to address what is perhaps my biggest pet peeve as a music reviewer: When a band chooses a cover song based on the track title alone, in some nebulous attempt at tying in to some vague, overarching thematic or concept rather than a structured attempt at putting a unique spin on a (hopefully) influential track to the members themselves. I can visualize Graveworm now, scanning a bunch of classic rock tracks in an attempt at causing controversy and trembling with anticipation at the procurement of "Losing My Religion," which is at best a vague reference to Satanism (I promise you this is what the band is going for with it's inclusion here). It is so profoundly shameless, and this lack of class is only slightly diffused by the fact that it is a competently-done cover. In fact it is probably the best track here, proving that while the pieces are more or less in place, Graveworm simply lacks the songwriting chops to get anywhere on their own.

While I can easily dismiss Engraved in Black as a necessary evil of sorts that helped usher in a short period of more fruitful, effectual output on Graveworm's part, that doesn't mean that I can just forget how much of a bore it is. Don't let your morbid curiosity regarding the cover tune lead you astray regarding this one. While the majority of this is competently-delivered melodic black metal similar to Naglfar in delivery and aesthetics, it also fails to live up to expectations just like our favorite Swedish skinheads and serves as yet another strike against the scene that Storm of the Light's Bane unknowingly birthed.

Engraved In Black marks a transition point in the band's musical history. Graveworm's past albums were all much slower, much more atmospheric and keyboard oriented. The production was also not as polished as in this record. The older albums are pure symphonic Black Metal with gothic elements. The previous album, Scourge of Malice is the most similar to this, which started to incorporate heavier, more aggressive elements into their music.

The newer albums, (N)utopia, Diabolical Figures and Collateral Defect have much more aggression and even incorporate elements from other, heavier genres. The approach to the albums is very different from when the band started out but nonetheless, they still manage to keep their signature style prominent, and are still recognizable. This album is basically the less heavy of the heavy albums, per say.

The album has a sorrowful aura, similar to the previous albums. The keyboards continue to be quite dominant as in the previous records. The overall pace of the album is medium, not too fast or too slow. The sound is dense and thick, due to the strong presence of keyboards, guitar and base guitar. The major change would be aggression from the vocals from Steffan being the loudest instrument heard. The vocalist uses both black metal style vocals and heavier, death metal vocals. The vocals are probably what contributes to the new, heavier sound in the album.

The instrumentation in general is quite melodic and continues to be mid-paced for the majority of the album. There are some instrumental parts here and there and are a great addition as they let the listener take a break from the harsh vocal style. "Dreaming into Reality" is a song that shows all of the positive components of the album; has a great focus on melody while still keeping the harsh atmosphere quite prominent. The slower parts in the song are some of the most memorable moments, and become a glimpse of what Graveworm was in the past albums. The song is one of the best in the album and in the new era of Graveworm.

"Drowned in Fear" is also quite interesting, it displays heavier parts in the beginning of the song, but slows down in the middle for some moments. It then ends with a combination of incredibly atmospheric keyboards mixed with harsh vocals. "Beauty of Malice" is the last song that is not an instrumental. It has unique, chorus like sounds incorporated. It also pauses for a moment and even includes a small piano solo in the middle. It is a strong song to end one of the best albums in the band's discography.

Engraved In Black is defiantly the strongest album of the newer, heavier sound. It still has many of the elements from past albums that made their music unique, while incorporating newer, heavier elements into the music. It is strongly recommended for symphonic black metal fans as well as melodic death metal fans. Gothic Metal fans will also probably enjoy it since it still continues to heavily use keyboards for atmosphere and melody.

Originally written for sputnikmusic

There is a lesson to be learned from this album - don't make assumptions about band names when browsing used CDs, because for every great band, there is another band with a nearly-identical name, and more often than not, they're simply a faggy doppelgänger. As one has most likely deduced by now, this "Graveworm" is not even remotely like the spectacular blackened thrash "Gravewürm" from the USA. Being the lazy S.O.B. that I am, I simply assumed that Gravewo was just an alternate spelling. What a fool I was...

I picked this up (along with (N)utopia) with very high expectations, having heard many good things about Gravewürm in the past. When I got in my car and put the CD in, however, I was punished for my aforementioned laziness by an obnoxious bit of symphonic wankery and soon enough, some half-assed wailing vocals to go along with it, and to serve as a foil, there was also an annoying bit of pseudo-death growls from a different vocalist to add a sense of (presumably) deep emotional suffering and mental anguish at some sort of vague loss.

Thoroughly pissed off at myself for not taking the time to check the record company or anything on the CDs, I decided to at least give it a chance. Despite the overy-cliche sound of the album and annoyingly crystal clear production (not to mention the perpetual sense of angst), I was pleasantly surprised at how catchy a lot of the music on Engraved In Black was. While all the elements of a typical shitty gothic metal album are here, there's also a nondescript refreshing sound of originality to the music.

I'm usually not too big on the whole dual-guitars thing, but somehow, Graveworm manages to pull it off without sounding gimmicky, and there are actually a lot of surprisingly catchy riffs throughout the album that are guaranteed to stick in your head. The drummer, while never very fast, incorporates the double bass very nicely, but mostly just serves to punctuate the guitars and is more of a sound effect than its own instrument. The keyboard also serves essentially the same purpose, except for beginning and ending tracks. Guitars, while very good instruments, should not be all that one really hears, and should certainly not be all that one remembers after hearing a CD. All in all, though, it's not bad so much as it is dissappointing.

However...this is supposed to be depressing music, and that is very evident by the album's biggest failing - the vocals. There are a lot of mediocre, and even downright bad, vocalists out there, but rare indeed are the men capable of quite literally giving their listeners a headache with how bad they are. The lead (non-death) vocalist isn't bad, but that goes without saying because the man also did vocals for Abigor for a couple years. For some reason, though, he felt the need to include some overly-deep half-assed backing vocalist with absolutely no talent whatsoever, and he serves to completely destroy any artistic integrity the band would have otherwise, ultimately doing nothing but destroying the slight bit of originality that was there without him. There's no plausible reason for this man's vocal role in the band, because it adds absolutely nothing and just makes them sound very annoying. Unforgiveable. There's also the aforementioned lack of emphasis on anything but the guitars (and vocals), which really makes the music sound rather monotonous and one-dimensional, despite the catchiness of a lot of the tracks.

All in all, Graveworm - Engraved In Black is pretty much worth the $2.50 I paid for it, but certainly not much more. It's interesting for the first two listenings or so, but after that, it just becomes obnoxious and repetitive, and a lot of the tracks sound overly-similar, even on the first playthrough.

I recommend downloading this if possible, or if you see it for sale, go ahead and pick it up, but you'll probably regret it.

Now this is a surprise. After a two years break, Austria's Graweworm come back with a new full length on no less than Nuclear Blast. This label is really planning to gather the whole metal scene under its banner... However, I felt pretty happy for the band when I discovered this, fpr their music truly deserved a better promotion and distribution.

"Engraved In Black" pretty much continues Graveworm's musical tradition of moddy Gothic / Doom Metal with Black Metal influences, mostly noticeable in the creepy voice of Stefan Fiori (the man was to be Abigor's new vocalist after Thurisaz's departure, tells you something) and the abundance of single-string tremolo picking despitethe predominance of slow tempos and very occasional blasting. The necessary ambience is provided by the talented Sabine Mair, who seems to always have some interesting keyboard tricks to show, and her contribution does not rarely drive the song structure into new and unsuspected dimensions.

The album opener, "Dreaming Into Reality", is the perfect mood-setter for the platter: a slow and vaguely sombre introduction which leads into a more up-tempo verse with some fast doble bass drumming in the backrgound, complete with well structured dual-guitar harmonies and Stefan's unearthly vocals; the man is, as always, excellent in his switching between shrill cries and very deep growlings, without ever sacrificing clarity. This is one of the very few cases where I don't need the lyric sheet to make out at least parts of the lyrics, to be more precise.

The beautiful cover painting, courtesy of Kristian Wahlin a.k.a. Necrolord, is probably the best visual representation of the album's mood: a seemingly abandoned chruchyard surrounded by desolate hills under a grey, cloudy sky, fraught with a feeling of calm before the storm. Yes, "Engraved In Black", compared to the band's earlier offerings, has quite a darker mood. The guitars are heavily downtuned and Stefan sticks to his growl more often than ever, making the Doom Metal comparison even stronger. However, Graveworm definitely play their own brand of music, and there are different moods and shades to be discovered as the tracklist unfolds: "Legions Unleashed" breaks into blasting stormblasts here and there, "Renaissance in Blood" manages to have an almost catchy song structure and the keyboard instrumental "Apparition of Sorrow" even shows odd tempos. Speaking of instrumentals, I have to mention the extraordnary "Thorns of Desolation", an amazingly effective dirge made more folkish by the use of bagpipes and various flutes, which stands as one of the most sad and beautiful pieces of music Graveworm have ever issued.

There is, however, a more playful side of the band to be discovered: enter the Digiack version bonus track, an unpreictable cover of Pet Shop Boys' "It's a Sin", turned into a fast, almost Speed Metal track by this band which is unquestionably gifted when it comes to radically re-shape songs of someone's else's set (remember "Fear of the Dark" on "Scourge Of Malice"?).

There is nothing to add... if you feel like being taken on a jorney through dark, grey emotional soundscapes, "Engraved In Black" is a must have.


P.S.: you may have noticed that I didn't mention the other cover version of this album, the much talked remake of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion". That is because I never heard it. The Digipack version (which I have) does include "It's a Sin" as a bonus, but does not feature "Losing My Religion" on the regular tracklist. Thank you very much, Nuclear Blast.