ALBUM REVIEW: Grisly – The Spectral Wars

Today I review another band I am new to, GRISLY with their debut album “The Spectral Wars” playing old school Death Metal, released today via Xtreem Music. I am already very intrigued from the very eye catching album cover, but let’s see how the music holds up!

1. Consumed From Beneath brings the album into an abrupt start with awesome riffing, a crawling Bolt Thrower like vibe and some killer drums. The forceful vocals are perfectly matched to the music, the mix is excellent and I am already feeling hopeful for this album. The guitar work is absolutely phenomenal, full of killer and original riffs. Really great, groovy opening track with plentiful melodic ideas too!
2. Rot To The Living summons the assaults again with so much ferocity and brilliant ideas found within the songwriting from the maddeningly, catchy riffs to the upbeat drum attacks and throat burning vocals. This is really tight material that is following the lines of bands like Benediction rather than the US or Swedish Death Metal scenes, giving it a very different musical approach to other recent Death Metal releases that wish to rekindle the old school sounds. Another brilliant track with some totally dismal grinding sections that really hit hard. The lead guitar parts are perfectly balanced in a way that adds to the track without it losing the catatonic momentum it builds up. Loved this track!
3. Parasite Parasite follows on very nicely from the previous tracks ending with some well restrained lead work over gruesome riffing, upbeat drums and once more absolutely gorgeous vocals with a certain Karl Willets influence (my personal favourite Death Metal vocalist). The maniacal attack of the song is unrelenting and just so catchy, with an almost Punk tinge on the chorus. Excellently chaotic guitar solo use which really breaks the song nicely, parting the crawling and morbid verse perfectly to really accentuate the atmosphere. Amazing sense of songwriting!
4. The Casket Eaters throws itself at you without warning (other than 4 cymbal hits), just like an Extreme Metal song should. This is beautifully put together and the song flows really nicely with its melodic yet primal groove and excellent drumming. The lyrics are incredibly well written and prove very interesting to listen to. This track has melodies found within it that send shivers down your spine before kicking into guitar shred insanity that knows its limits and works really well in the song, once more clearly making an effort not to damage the momentum.
5. Teeth That Rips certainly rips with the darkened riffs that have so much bite and malice to them. This is real Death Metal, with a malignant and dangerous sound to it and none of that over-polished or obnoxious technically to it, primal and hectic with so much vigorous force to it. I cannot seem to get over how many fantastic riffs  are present throughout this release, each one transcending to the next gorgeously and all of them feeling very well written and chosen, I am of course reviewing this from a guitarist perspective, but it is nice to see they have not used any sub-par filler riffs or generic/plagiarised sections.
6. Bring Out The Horrors has a pummelling yet twisted vibe to it with so much furious attack behind every instrument and vocal line. The truly grisly horror feel of the song is perfectly suited to the title and the tapped guitar solo sounds beautiful sat within the mix. This track certainly does not mess about with niceties, taking a much more primitive assault to the listener. This track is positively gruesome and full of horrific sounds that really reflect the intentions stated in the title. Great work!
7. Supernatural Warfare is once more very upbeat and groovy from the beginning, while there has not been a great amount of diversity between tracks, the songs all sound wicked and work really well together. The lower tremolo picked riffs on this track sound so evil with the slower drums behind them, very menacing indeed! Once again we are smashed into oblivion by upbeat snare hits, groovy riffs and some really hellish growls. The songs have this gorgeous feel to them like they are crawling towards you, which will make no sense to anybody until you check this out, but make sure you do, because it is absolute gnarly. The double kicks really penetrate the mix nicely giving a well placed punch to the track (not that it lacked in punch). The guitar solo springs out of nowhere and disappears again which was a nicely chosen and unexpected twist. Slower tempo sections are used to add a doomy vibe to the music that sound so damn cool, another wonderful track!
8. Sentenced To Armageddon does not give warning, instead it just kicks you in the face. The melodies of this track are absolutely stunning to listen to, the vocals are so damn raw, just how they should be! The pummelling drums are perfectly punctual the way they sort of let up then blast and so on with some more killer upbeat hammering too! The song sonically is actually pretty joyful, but do not let that fool you, this is after all a really violent feeling attack of Death Metal madness! The melodies are totally haunting too! Awesome stuff that is actually really catchy with some almost blackened sections thrown in for good measure, very well balanced and strung together!
9. Into Insanity falls perfectly into place with more tremolo guitar riff madness and beautifully hammered out drums. The slower sections have some stunning lead works before dropping into a militantly marching assault. The band seem to have so much groove to spare really belting out each song with such powerful velocity. Once more almost blackened elements appear into the soundscape adding a lot to the unique atmosphere of the band. The harmonies are a lovely flourish that shows a bit more diversity to the track and really lifts the whole thing up from its crushing deadweight vibe (or at least briefly) until the hectic shreds and pummelling rhythms come back. Lovely use of blast beats that are pleasantly not over-indulged on this release so that when they do appear it is a really noticeable thing rather than something that just feels bland and dull so great respect to the band for that too.
10. The Spectral Wars has a slower tempo beginning, some great sampling and more sombre riffs, working really well together with the slowed drums to create the perfect vibe of a closing song. There is a really tight punch to this track and I really admire the more melancholy feel of it that still seems to hammer out so much force, taking the grooves in its stride and creating something really glorious. This song is actually really emotionally powerful and such a wonderful closing piece of music that sounds very different to anything we have heard up until now. The re-appearing samples sound pretty creepy too within the mix and the lead guitars really soar in this track. An excellent closing piece for an excellent album!

Bolt Thrower fans should definitely check this out, as should fans of any old school Death Metal. Really killer album full of great ideas and an exceptional debut! I haven’t heard many Death Metal bands follow this path and I am really glad that someone has, and made an awesome job of it too. -8.5/10