Grave – Endless Procession Of Souls

Grave are one of the legends of the Swedish Death metal scene alongside with Entombed/Unleashed/Dismember, counting numerous fans around the world and a praiseworthy consistency in terms of new albums. No compromise, no melodic approach, just straightforward Death metal the brutal way (as the Dutch Asphyx would say).

Their new album “Endless Procession Of Souls” is their first album with Century Media after the “Soulless” (1994) and it’s equally as good in terms of quality as their previous works and continues to deliver the goods. Starting off with the slow lead intro “Dystopia” which leads us to “Amongst The Marble And The Dead” which is a furious Thrashing song devastating everything in its path setting the tone for the rest of the album. I can only imagine the number of moshpits opening for that song during their live gigs. Next off an obsessively groovy track called “Disembodied Steps” (seriously that chorus is made for headbanging!) with its Thrashy part in the middle then back to the groovy chorus. Next we have another kick ass drum intro with “Flesh Epistle” with its Celtic Frost riffage making the listener bang his or her head harder.

Another groovy track follows called “Passion Of The Weak” which has an awesome and memorable chorus that really stands out. The slow riffage of “Winds Of Chains” after the blowing wind intro leads us to a kind of a Black/Death riff, only to turn into another Thrasher breaking into a beautiful Slayer-esque solo. This is being followed by 2 more fast songs, the blasphemous “Encountering The Divine” and “Perimortem” showing some Exodus-influenced riffage especially on the second one. The song “Plague Of Nations” comes to bring an entirely groovy track to the album with its technical intro on the drums which breaks into a frenzied Slayer-esque solo.

The album ends with “Epos” which is a Doom/Death song with many tempo changes from mid tempo to Doom metal and an amazing intro riff. The bands sounds really tight and ready to kick serious asses. This is simply recommended to any Death metal fan that wants to get in touch with Grave and will be another amazing album for their long-time fans.