Graves Of Valor – Salarian Gate

Wow! This is rockin’ baby! Who could tell that the band that came from the ashes of “Through The Eyes Of The Dead” would be such blasting… Ladies and gentlemen, behold the birth of a new strong act in the metal scene: Graves Of Valor!

Relapse did a miracle once again and managed to sign these quintet which promises much more to come in the future. Their debut called ”Salarian Gate” comes crushing all the doubtful ones, in case they believed that metal is dead in the ends of the 00’s. Dead wrong buddies… GOV sound so fresh and eager to make some heads roll for good. Even from the beginning of the album, the title track gets you straight to the point and the next 32 minutes pass by like a moment in time. As soon as the album is over,Git feels like it lasted for just a quarter, something that enables you to push the repeat button again, in order to learn better what you listened before: Growling vocals that are the driving force to this battle, riffs that follow one another, creating structures inside the songs that change from second to second. Not to mention the phenomenal rhythm section, especially the drummer feels like he’s doing routine work, though he plays exceptionally great rhythms.

This band sounds modern and traditional together, a great mixture of old death metal pioneers such as Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus and even Behemoth and Suffocation on the one hand, and on the other hand you can find sounds from newest bands like The Black Dahlia Murder or Job For A Cowboy. What they do they do it great and they have been so far one of the best surprises this year. It is sure one of the best albums for 2009. Especially being a debut which is always difficult to establish some personal identity and sound.

Things seem to go better in the future for them, the court is theirs and they have passed the ball to us. Will you score? That’s the question!