It wasn't but a few reviews past when I
wrote about Gravewürm's Blood of the Pentagram, an album that was
supposed to be the band's last. A couple of weeks after I'm reading a
release note on Netherfiend, a brand new EP from these very same
American churners of the most minimalistic old school black / death
metal. It also seems there is a split with Spun in Darkness in the
works, so this long-lived group doesn't seem so dead after all. I
don't know if there has been some confusion when the last year's
full-length was said to be the final nail in the coffin, or maybe
Hells Headbangers was finally a good label choice for Gravewürm and
they got motivation to work on new material. Despite the last year's
rather high-profile release on such a big label in the underground
scene, Netherfiend is self-released and limited to mere 100 copies.
To some this might seem like a cheap trick to get people to buy
something that's a ”buy now or eBay later” item, but when you
consider how little audience Gravewürm actually has, 100 copies
seems a lot smarter than thousands of copies lying in warehouses for
eternities.
Onto the actual music, you may already
guess that there has not been any changes, at least compared to Blood
of the Pentagram. If you are unaware of Gravewürm's sound, here's a
summary: absurdly simple, evil, power chord driven 1st
wave black metal in moderate tempos with an evident drum machine.
Hellhammer, Sodom and Venom might be good reference points, but in
truth, the band has somehow crafted a sound of their own. It might be
the utterly simplistic drum patterns whacking the very same beats
they did on at least Dark Souls of Hell (the only other album I own
along with this and the predecessor) back in 2002 already. The only
difference to those early 2000s is the slight rise in mysterious lead
melodies that are to be found from Netherfiend as well. The eponymoys
first track is a as straightforward Gravewürm as ever, but the
follow-up ”As the Abyss Commands” is a leap to the similar dark,
even minorly melancholic soundscapes of 2010's album. From here on,
I'm constantly noticing brilliant compositional ideas here in spite
of all the hellbent conservatism and entrenchment into the simpliest
possible riffs. The magic is in the little variations that every
track on Netherfiend offer, like the crude palm-muted riffage on
”Princess of the Night” that shifts into almost epic distorted
plucking, or the ominous slowness on certain parts of ”The 13th
Cycle”.
While writing this review, I'm slowly
realizing that we're perhaps dealing with the best Gravewürm release
to date. It's not only that every song here is actually good, but
it's also that Netherfiend isn't prolonged. Eight track is quite
possibly the best amount for this style, so the glitch of dullness
that has troubled previous Gravewürm onslaughts does not appear
here. What you get is a fitting load of thirty minutes of
straight-to-the-point black / death metal, and I don't find much to
complain. But the truth also is that Gravewürm isn't for anyone, not
even for those worshipping all the possible bestial black metal
groups, because this band isn't really swift and agile. The drum
machine creates a clumsy feeling, but it's something I'm used to, and
slowly started to appreciate. You might want to check out some
samples before investing into this band, even though Netherfiend was
only 8 dollars postage paid worlwide. (Wait, what? Yes, I actually
paid 6.1 euros in total for a digipack pro-CD delivered from the
States.) Those who liked what Blood of the Pentagram offered can't go
wrong with this one, and the price clearly can't be any kind of a
hindrance.
4 / 5
