The Fire That Burns in Hell

Hailing from the US, A Gruesome Find play a brand of melodic black metal in vain of Emperor or Rotting Christ, but also include touches of death metal into their sound as well. “The Fire the Burns in Hell” is my only experience with the band and although, I’ve heard mixed reviews about their other work, I must say I was rather impressed with what this album had to offer.

The music on “The Fire the Burns in Hell” is built on the foundation of melodic hooks that peak the listener’s interest which are followed by a bevy of thick and heavy riffs that command your attention. The riffs are generally a mixture between tremolo picking and melodic death metal similar to those in the Gothenburg scene. This combination makes for some catchy and powerful leads that remain in the spotlight for the majority of each song. The structures of the songs are generally comprised of one main riff, which then has a short, but melodic passage, then transition into another, distinct riff, which essentially serves as the main rhythm of the guitars. A good example would be “...as the Wind Blows in Darkness”, where the songs opens with a short, but strong hook, which then descends quickly into a exchange of heavy riffs throughout the song.

The drums are tight sounding and offer plenty of blast beats, snares and cymbal crashes to create an atmosphere of dissonance and destruction. Although the vocals punch quite a bunch and are aggressively in the forefront of the music, they are, what one might say, run of the mill in originality. That, by no means, belittles their overall sound, nor do they sound bad in any manner. They’re just, a sound that you’ve heard many times over before. The bass is noticeably absent for the most part, but the band does flirt with the aesthetic a little by add some pianos as can be heard on “Summoning of the Nocturnal Spirit”.

There is a double edged aspect to the album that must also be pointed out. Each song is a minimum of five minutes and upwards to nine plus. On one hand this allows for some of the songs’ riff exchanging to take it effect and create an enjoyable listening experience as you immerse yourself in the melodic death tinged black metal sounds. On the other, a few songs suffer from over staying their welcome just a little too long. At some points, instead of a riffs sounding like they’re changing hands, they sound more like, simply recycling the same notes over and over.

“The Fire that Burns in Hell” may not be on the level as anything released by the likes of Rotting Christ, Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir, but their deathy, USBM sound was a welcome addition to the many symphonic black metal acts at the time. Instrumental blemishes and length issues aside, “The Fire That Burns in Hell” would be a welcome addition to any black metal fans collection.

Highlights: “...As the Wind Blows In Darkness” “Bring Forth” “The Fire That Burns In Hell”

Into the Abyss of Oblivion

This is a massive improvement over A Gruesome Find's incredibly mediocre first demo, probably because the band essentially stopped with the overtly grim sound and channeled the poppy, melodic essence that made up the few bright moments on 'Ravens Of The Full Moon Eclipse'. 'The Fire That Burns In Hell' is a straight melodic black metal record that cribs significant elements of its sound from bands like Dimmu Borgir, filtered through a more traditional USBM style of playing, making this sort of a (very average and not nearly as compelling) version of Vehemence for the black metal crowd. It's still nowhere near great music, but at least this is listenable all the way through despite the irritating length of the songs and still fairly simplistic writing. It's one-dimensional, yes, but at least the dimension they've chosen this time is tolerable.

There's more riffs this time around; streams of tremolo that sort of alternate between pseudo-melodeath melodies and some fairly incoherent Norwegian-style ones. The former are, as you would expect, much better than the latter, as A Gruesome Find still doesn't really know how to write a memorable black metal riff, so if they have to rob Gothenburg blind to create something good, more power to them. The overuse of 'change the rhythm of a riff to make it a new riff' is still most certainly present, but not quite to the excruciating degree of the previous demo; whole tracks have more than two riffs in them (and thank god given how overlong some of the songs here are). While the composition isn't stellar, it's still much stronger, with some genuinely memorable riffs popping up here and there even if the rest of the songwriting is merely very average.

I'm still not fond of the vocals and the drumwork is pretty still and bare-bones, but I can in every way say this is better than 'Ravens Of The Fullmoon Eclipse'. A Gruesome Find would still get a little bit better from here (though not a whole lot), so this isn't the band's crown jewel, but it's decent enough for $5 and doesn't do anything to offend you. Maybe that's a problem, but god, any improvement over the debut is massively welcome on my end.

Ohio Bleath (err.. Blackened Death) Metal is back with "The Fire That Burns In Hell". It's more of the same music from these guys - that being equal parts primitive black metal and death metal with a slight hint of melody. The keyboard intro to "Summoning The Nocturnal Spirit" is not what I was expecting, but it turns out to be one of the more interesting things on an album that is otherwise very straightforward and lacks some dynamics. Don't get me wrong... A Gruesome Find are great at what they do. The vocals are extremely grim. The simple song structures and musicianship works in the same way that Marduk accomplishes so much in such a stripped down manner. As a matter of fact, I'd say "The Fire That Burns In Hell" sounds like a less professional, and albeit less tight, version of those Swedish black metallers - maybe with a touch of Setherial thrown in for good measure (and to account for the small melodic element which creeps into AGF's music from time to time). As far as the production goes, I don't know what to make of it. It doesn't have a bad recorded quality, but it does seem like it was mixed poorly. These guys definitely have some potential, although it seems like their music may actually have weakened a bit since the days of their demo. The talent is there to really make a solid blackened death metal record, but there are still a few stumbling blocks in their way.