"Dominion VIII" CD by Grave

by Björn Thorsten Jaschinski (21.04.2008) "In my dominion …" these are the first lines of "Soulless", a classic from their early days. The Swedish steam waltz Death Metal institution, who in 2002 appeared with "Back from the dead", keeps up their two-years-rhythm and is with "Dominion VIII" at their best. From the four big Stockholm bands – the inhabitants of Gotland have early settled over into the capital – they have always been the least melodic and the heaviest one. While Dismember usually throw out their twin-guitar trawl nets, the grave keepers show up with an extra portion of huge riffs, straight beats and fierce Doom breaks (’Sinners lust’). Ola Lindgren (v,g) as the only remaining original member keeps the trio on its course, the meat chunk, ‘Annihilated gods’ and the Uffta-hitter, ‘Deathstorm’ could also come from the roots of Swedish Death. Moderately surprising: the extended title track of this eights grave gathering is edged by black ribbon acoustics guitars.