Exalted Emanation

Grave Miasma quickly became one of my favourite death / black metal bands and in my private ranking they hold a very high place. But it cannot be different if they keep unleashing such a fury as "Odori Sepulcrorum" or "Exalted Emanation". The latter was released back in 2009 and it's a fantastic debut effort from Grave Miasma. Although it has 35 minutes on the clock, it's considered an EP, but that is not something I would care. What matters is that this is absolutely intriguing and mesmerizing piece of black / death metal and music, which really stands out from the overcrowded scene with something special and unique.

Obviously, there are many other bands, which create similar type of extreme music. There's Necros Christos, Teitanblood, Grave Upheaval, Irkallian Oracle, Qrixkuor, Sheol, Embrace of Thorns and more. Each of them is great and unique In its own way. And each is characterised with this very dense, thick as a cemetery fog, almost claustrophobic wall of sound, which immensely crushes with its massive heaviness. This style of music is something what can be quite hard to get into, if you're not into such style and it can also feel quite one dimensional and unreadable, due to its density and close to cacophony, chaotic, often reverberating sound. But this is why you must treat it carefully, listen to it with attention, let these sounds swallow you. You need to immerse into this blackened abyss to find method in this madness. This is exactly how Grave Miasma's music sound like also.

It’s thick, cacophonous, insanely heavy and vicious death / black metal, with utterly obscure, sepulchral atmosphere and fantastic ghoulish vocals, which add a lot to increase this bestial, evil aura. Everything is very well balanced, between faster parts and some slower tracks like that killer piece titled "Pillars". Here and there you may even be able to pick up a small trace of harmonious riff, but for me personally the most distinctive aspect of Grave Miasma music is how it can put you into some sort of trance. It's almost like a mantra, what can actually go in hand with the occult concept Grave Miasma presents. And damn, this is one of the darkest and most eerie, ghastly sounding music ever. Devouring, passionate, mesmerizing sounds... In my opinion this EP is close to perfection and I dare to say that Grave Miasma already reached a cult status.

Standout tracks: “Pillars”, “Arisen Through the Grave Miasma”
Verdict: 90/100

You enter the cemetery, somewhere at the east-coast of England. Surrounding you are monoliths, crypts with intimidating pillars and statues in shapes of demons. A chilly wind strokes your face, and a chill runs down your spine. Suddenly, you're thrown into the darkest depths of your mind. There is no presence of light, but shapes of the worst horrors imaginable surround you, rape your mind, claw at your soul - and you find it all alluring for some perverse reason! Then as these evil spirits start to penetrate your body at all the non-vital spots with tools of torture, you let out a quiet gasp as you've lost your ability to scream, a sepulchral feeling comes to you and the illusion fades. You're laying in a coffin, you subconsciously know you've been grasping and scratching at the lid and that your nails have fallen off, and coagulated blood stick to your hands. You attempt to move your body, only to find it's nailed to the bottom of the coffin, you're confined with a bleak hope of survival, so long you can get the lid off and pull yourself through the nails and attain freedom of this existence. Your attempts are in vain, the air is growing stale and sepulchral and eventually runs out, you've lost your breath, true panic at the face of death is tormenting you beyond your senses. You've been embraced by death itself. Welcome to the world of the dead; rejoice!

Ah, these are the pictures that ravage your mind as you play this EP. It's the feeling the suggestive atmosphere induce into your very soul. It's all so dark... Very dark, yet grandiose and oh so beautiful. This is the work of true grandmasters at craft, it's a miasmal stench from beyond the grave into the land beyond life and death. Truly for the horror fanatics, the perverse, the morbid, the ones that seek pleasure in an aesthetic of wicked darkness.

So what tools do these fine Englishmen possess to tune their craft into this magnificence? Well, alike most metal bands, they play instruments - bass, guitar, drums and abyssal growls. The method, play death metal as Demigod did it, and instead of a crunch, tune it down and make it even darker. The guitars are beckoning you into a deathlike state, and you just have to suck in the abysmal tone with every breath. A tone which isn't all that crunchy, but within the marriage with the bass, that has a real crunchy tone, an indescribable murky atmosphere surface. They kind of chug on in a mid-to-fast pace most of the time, creating an addictive taste for more with every second. The drums are played in a kind of atmospheric way in relation to the string department, with fills beyond your imagination, keeping your senses sharp as you're engrossed by the shear talent of the beast behind the set.

So far, the build up of the band is pretty much solid, but what binds it together into nothing short of perfection are the vocals. There's not much variation going on, but the guy sounds like a frikkin' space monster, Yog-Soggoth himself perhaps, murmuring for himself, yet to our minds sounding like perversion made sound. He's drawing out on the syllables, there's some mild echo going on to enhance the effect, and every now and then you get a scream as if possessed by a horrific pleasure only the great ones can give to mortal man. All these elements bound together may create such visions as described above, so bow down to the new masters of this brand of death metal, and do not attempt to strengthen your will at the assault that is to follow, as this force major won't relent a second to those who disobey.

In conclusion, I really recommend this record for fans of death metal in the vein of Demigod, Incantation and alike, or people just searching for a horror-kick. Keep the underground festering, Grave Miasma, and bleach our souls with the dark arts! And to you, dear reader, keep it true and support the eruption of immorality and death fucking metal.