Graveworm - Diabolical Figures (2009)

cover

After listening to three very sub par records from this Italian band, they blow us away since track one (“Vengance Is Sworn”) of this new album. I was starting to loose faith in this band since being very disappointed with their weird musical style switch since (N)Utopia, I was a very big fan of their earlier work like “As Angels…” and “Scourge Of Malice” so when the bombastic sound they had took a hit into a more Melodic Death/Black metal I was not digging it.

With “Diabolical Figures” they go somewhat back to their more Symphonic side of music, but not loosing their brutality and aggressiveness that has been featured in most of their albums. The catchiness of most songs in this album is stellar and would have any fan of the band head banging from start to end.

Featuring 10 powerful songs, Graveworm have returned with a vengeance. I can’t find a weak song in this album, or a song that bores me, all of them are very well composed and feature enough differences between each other to make them a great listening experience. Stefan’s deep growls and shrieks are at its best level since “Scourge of Malice”. Sabine’s majestic keyboards adorn the band’s brutal drumming and guitar work to perfection and highlight the mixture of beauty with brutality of the music perfectly. And they are never over done like in other Symphonic Black Metal bands around.

The drumming is restless and provides enough tempo changes in between the songs, to make this album an epic journey of aggressiveness and melody. The guitar work is also worth mentioning since it provides great riffs to accompany all the previously mentioned elements and adding that extra punch to the music, our favorite guitar work is featured in the songs “Forlon Hope” and “New Disorder”, but besides these, there are plenty of memorable moments, both aggressive and melodic.

I’m very impressed with the band’s brutal return after “Collateral Damage” (which is think was their lowest point), and I will be waiting to catch them live, hopefully one day in the US. Overall this is very good album in all aspects that will catapult this band back to the top. And by the way their cover of “Message in a Bottle” is pretty funny.

Band: Graveworm Album: Diabolical Figures
Label: Massacre Records

Release: June 16th, 2009

Official Site myspace
Genre: Symphonic Black / Death Metal

Country: Italy

Rating: 92/100
Year: 

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