GRAVE - You'll Never See... LP (Orange Blackl Smoke Vinyl)

450 copies limited edition, jacket with black flood inside and reverseboard finish, double sided insert.

Though they were not the first to use the signature chainsaw guitar tone, Swedish death metal pioneers Grave have actually been on the radar since the late 80's, releasing a demo under the name Corpse. The demo work of Grave is quite a force to be reckoned with in the realm of early death metal, despite often being overlooked in favor of their better known countrymen - it was more repulsive than much of what the genre had to offer at the time, and this tendency culminated in the death metal classic known as 1991's Into the Grave. I take that debut effort to be one of the finest representations of death metal in its purest form, Swedish or otherwise, to this very day. The music is as rotten as the iconic cover art, thanks in equal parts to Ola's riffs which have the perfect blend of doominess and aggression, and the deeply guttural death growls. The following year, Grave released their sophomore album titled You'll Never See, which,  being a worthy sequel to the first album that is largely cut from the same cloth.

 The brand of death metal these Swedes offer on this album deserves more credit in the death metal scene overall, because it's the prime example of an artform being done with real intent and purpose behind it.