GRAVE DECAY- From Dust to Dust
Grave Decay is a 2-man band that hails from the Netherlands. Readers may be familiar with ½ the band, Mauce who founded Dutch website The Metal Resource. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this. The name and album cover teased me into thinking it could be a form of black metal, but instead what we have here is some melodic death metal with some symphonic elements.
The riffs here are executed well, the growls are effective, and there are just enough strings and keys to keep these interesting. Most of the time, the symphonic elements implement a pleasing layer of sound and melody to the crunchy riffs. This works especially well on tracks like “Grave Mystery” and “Memories.” On a limited number of occasions, they are slightly distracting and less effective, most notably on the ominously-titled “Bloodbound.” Perhaps the effectiveness of the strings comes from the fact that they are samples of actual recordings as opposed to synthetic keyboard sounds.
Astonishingly for an indie release, the production on From Dust to Dust is immaculate. Everything sounds crisp and clean, and the instruments are easily distinguishable from one another. I think what’s so refreshing about this release is that we have here a band that knows who they are. They aren’t trying to sound like anyone else, not trying to be too brutal, too technical or too anything. It’s simply really good melodic death metal written and played really well. That they managed to accomplish this with only 2 members and independent of a record label just adds to its charm. www.gravedecayband.com (indie) 4 out of 5 stars
Album Teaser:
