Graveyard - Lights Out Review

Graveyard and their Swedish brand of proto metal and blues rock were riding high on their most recent release Hisingen Blues, and here the band comes a year and a half later with Lights Out. As fans, we are never sure what to expect when there is a short turnaround from one album to the next. Will it be of the same quality of the one previous which had a gap of about 4 years? Will it sound as fresh and bombastic as the last?

Right out of the gate Graveyard hits you with the rocker “An Industry of Murder,” with the excellent vocal style of Joakim Nilsson on full display with all of the love given back to the psych and garage rock bands of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. It is the layout and overall pace of this album that I find perplexing, as the band slows down considerably on the aptly titled “Slow Motion Countdown.” This song seems destined to close out the album and is an overall forgettable experience, with its inability to gain any traction and the wait takes nearly 6 minutes until the next track begins.

The rest of the album seems to follow the trend of for every rock song we end up with more of a ballad and it starts to feel like the band is holding back and not putting their particular style on full display. The album’s lone standout has to be “Goliath,” as it holds true to what people expect from the band from start to finish. It has a myriad of riffs that hit the listener right where you want it, on the back of your denim jacket and causing a shift in time back to the glory days of this style of music.

I expected better of Graveyard. Sadly, Lights Out feels like a major step backwards for the band, with a lack of an overall flow and very so-so song writing. It looks like the band may have to go back to the drawing board and create a cohesive album once again.

(released November 6, 2012 on Nuclear Blast Records)

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