Gravehill - 'Rites of The Pentagram/Metal Of Death' Review

Bare bones death metal is played with conviction but relies too heavily on influences.

Gravehill is one of the bands now touring as part of Ibex Moon’s “Death Metal Purity” tour. That should give you a good idea of what they offer on Rites Of The Pentagram/Metal of Death: old-school death metal straight from the original playbook, lumbering riffs and your basic fire, blood and brimstone lyrics. They also share a name with Tom Gabriel Fischer’s earliest band (Grave Hill). Those are big boots to fill.

Gravehill doesn’t pretend or profess to be anything but a classic death metal band. If you like the early American death metal acts – Obituary, the mid '90s Six Feet Under albums and Monstrosity – then this record will probably grab you. It isn’t technical and it isn’t pretty. But it does have a certain charm and it does move, even if some songs wear out their welcome after three or four minutes.  

Gravehill never plays over their head, preferring to stick to meat and potatoes music. The offerings here also adhere to gory and predictable death metal themes. Among the songs are “Ravager,” “Murder,” and “Suicide.” Ok, we get the picture: this is not music for a prayer circle.  They also sing frequently about how much they love death metal, which is never in question.

Like many of the bands playing old-school death, Gravehill has obvious and contagious passion for the music. But they also share the drawbacks, namely that their studio work doesn’t merit repeat listens or add to the legacy they hold dear. I imagine Gravehill kills it live, but their recorded output so far isn’t distinct enough to track down – especially when many of the old masters are still on the touring circuit.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.