Grave Siesta – Grave Siesta (2011)

Making its way from Finland, today we have Grave Siesta and their self-titled debut full-length release. In this album the band cruises through 45 minutes of very unique and diverse sounding Doom Metal that seems to not take any particular shape, but sounds crunchy enough to be noticed. The band formed in 2010, and with a couple of demos under their belt they unleash this very solid freshman effort that will surely get them some attention.

With a hefty dosage or Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Rock and a Doom Metal core, the band opens this release with the punishing “Work Enslaves”. In this track the guitars immediately pop-out and the typical Finish-sounding vocals appear. The bands vocalist Taito Halonen sounds very similar to M Mystons from the Finish Rock outfit Mystons. There are some screams that definitely sound different but fail to make an impression in this track. “Barbaric” has a more traditional Doom feeling to it and delivers more excellently crafted guitar riffs. The vocals again shine thanks to the Southern feeling to them, greatly enhancing the gritty sound of the song.

Sami Lintunen guitar work keeps shining in tracks like “Trials of the Pyramid Builder”, “Cancer Appreciation Song” and “Meles Infernus”, this element single handedly crafts the band’s musical sound and makes this release very entertaining. With some of the Psychedelic stuff making its way into “Hanging Expectations” and “Guilt”, this makes these songs our favorite ones of this release. The bass guitar is very well defined in these tracks and really adds to the overall devastating effect of the band’s music.

In general, we think that while “Grave Siesta” is a solid release, the band needs to keep working in finding their own sound. There are many different influences plastered together in a very cool manner, but make the release feel a bit disconnected. For a debut release this is as good as it can get, and we can only hope to hear better things from this band in the near future.

Release: November 23rd, 2011

Country: Finland