Title: Immemorial Curse
Genre: Death Metal
Year: 15th June 2017
Time: 34 min
Rating: 63/100
H.P. Lovecraft! How many extreme metal bands took inspirations for their lyrics from the raving imagination of that solitary man? An endless bunch, you know, and the nice thing is that many other new bands continue to evocate untiringly the Ancient Ones and their cosmos full of unspeakable abominations ready to swallow your useless mortal bodies until to destroy your own souls. Well, Dig Me No Grave, from Russia with hate, are one of the new Lovecraft's worshippers. But they are new for me because I didn't know anything about them until few days ago. In fact, we are talking about a band that plays since 2009 releasing, for the moment, two albums from 2014 to 2017, and the last of them is the here reviewed "Immemorial Curse", edited by the prolific Russian label Satanath Records along with the US Sevared Records and the Russian Wings of Destruction.
Taken their moniker from the tale with the same name written by Robert E. Howard where he mentioned Yog-Sothoth, Dig Me No Grave dubs their music as "Ancient Death Metal", and the adjective "ancient" is to be intended in EVERY sense, not only for the lyrical inspirations but also musically speaking. In fact, this Russian quintet plays a death metal in an old-school way (the only TRUE way, to speak the truth) characterized by a generally simple approach, the classic Floridian growls of the singer Alexey Rumyantsev, some guitar solos here and there able to transmit a bit of rotting atmosphere, and by a very good drummer named Anatoly Schenikov that ranges from (occasional) blast-beats to doom tempos embraced by a slighty dark aura and from some thrashing patterns to more complex passages, in order to offer a nice dynamicity. Judging by all these features, I should say that they are good enough to satisfy every death metal maniac to the bone. But instead...
...but instead, there's something not so convincing throughout the album, in my opinion. Ok, the music is technically good and everything is at its right place, including a slightly clean production, but the main problem is that the songs aren't so intense since they aren't really violent and brutal. I have to say that there are many (too?) mid-tempos here, especially in a song called "Monument to Violence" that is completely focused, despite its title, on a mid-tempo oriented approach. So, it isn't a case if that my favorite number is the most brutal one (if compared with the other tracks, at least), that is "I See Them!", that is even the most complex number of the entire album, thanks also to a drummer really on fire.
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Tracklist:
1 - The Curse (Intro)
2 - Ritual Slaughter
3 - Initiation to Afterlife Disciplines
4 - Cursed Acheron
5 - Dig Me No Grave
6 - The Call of the Witch
7 - Ancient Aliens
8 - Monument to Violence
9 - I See Them!
10 - Edge of Eternity
Line-up:
Alexey Rumyantsev - vocals
Nikita Smirnov - guitars
Anton Pyatakov - guitars
Ivan Mishin - bass
Anatoly Schenikov - drums
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/digmenograveband
BandCamp: http://digmenograve.bandcamp.com/
Satanath Rec: http://www.satanath.com/
Sevared Rec: https://store.sevared.com/
Wings of Destruction: http://wod-prods.jimdo.com/
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