Gravfraktal – Unhallowed Death Triumph (2020)

Metal finds itself adrift between major movements, having perfected itself with black metal, especially as the genre re-incorporated death metal influences. Morons took that back into rock with “technical death metal” and “post-metal,” and the underground retaliated by becoming hardcore punk with “war metal.”

Gravfraktal come to us by combining d-beat Swedish style death metal with oddball ritual black metal like Havohej or Black Funeral, creating a strange melodic atmosphere generally based on the interplay of three riffs in a song and the turnarounds and connective budget riffs necessary to tie it together.

Unhallowed Death Triumph shows us a work in progress, uncertain of which riffs to include and how to focus each song, but still giving a new voice to old genres by only partially combining them, more in keeping with the spirit of noctural dark metal from the early 1990s than the more vigorous death metal and war metal to follow.

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6 thoughts on “Gravfraktal – Unhallowed Death Triumph (2020)”

  1. Ernst of Life says:

    Same old same old. Predictable riff patterns, no atmosphere. ‘The Nocturnal Silence’ still sounds more fresh, advanced and competent than this combination of rehashing styles.

    1. Even the 3 worded album name is like randomly generated. Fuck this cover art too. How many times do we have to see a cross turned upside and desecrated in some way or another.

      1. Ernst of Life says:

        This looks like a Chris Moyen. He must be so bored of being commissioned to do the same thing for every band.

        1. Ernst of Life says:

          I actually think the logo is the one positive takeaway from this despite the shit band bame, but they didn’t explore that aesthetic at all in the cover art. Mishmash just like the music.

      2. Ernst of Junger says:

        This looks like a Chris Moyen. He must be so bored of being commissioned to create essentially the same artwork for every band.

  2. ignominious says:

    I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up sounding like Tribulation.

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