NEDGRAVD REVIEW

NEDGRAVD - ASCENSION

From seemingly out of nowhere they came, a more rare case of death metal out of the land of Norway whose black metal scene is now legendary while having more mainstream recognition than ever before. Still having spawned a wealth of highly-revered death metal that have spawned from their land, Nedgravd is yet another prime example of this and with their "Ascension" debut the underground has been all but literally lit on fire with heaps of praise and acclaim.

With a truly distorted swirling cacophony comes "Qhurra (Storms Of...)", the gurgling, croaking vocals reminding us of the primitive, backwards days of underground yore. Speaking of, I was delighted to hear a clip of dialogue from The Exorcist III leading into "Paragon Of Impiety" and all of its exquisite sliminess. Lengthy, doomy, with the drums tinny and and the bass shaky, "Severed Gate Shroud" has vocals doubling up intermittently for its diabolical dark decline before giving way to "Black Blood Descension", and all weapons are unleashed muffled and muted to over eight minutes of pure perfection in a most bloodstained bludgeoning before tapering off into an almost carnivalesque synthesizer passage of serious lunacy to bid us farewell.

As vile as death metal should be, "Ascension" is a throwback to the early days of death metal lunacy when tape trading and mouth-to-ear were the best ways to learn about new bands and zines were all the rage as a type of underground cultural preservation. This is immense for the scene and hopefully many new young bands willl emerge with the output and mentality of Nedgravd to keep this passionate flame burning forever!

10/10