My Own Grave. That name sounds like a metalcore band's, eh?! It fucking might do that, big time. When I received their latest EP 'Unholy' (2007) back in the day, I was quite sure that they can't play metalcore, because the logo smells of Mortician's and the cover's in King Diamond vein. Listened to it and my thoughts proved to be right. My Own Grave did death/thrash hybrid, without any gay "emo" polluting their metal guaranteed. Oh, and they come from Sweden, by the way. Damned countless boring acts aping Swedish death metal the way it shouldn't be aped. I tend to stick away from such apes and I probably wouldn't have ever heard My Own Grave if the guys hadn't sent their stuff to me. So, 'Unholy' pleased me and when I found this for a cheap price, there was no other way around it.

I don't know if I had a shitload of earwax in my auditory canals when I reviewed 'Unholy', but My Own Grave do sound Swedish, unlike I really pointed out in that review. Period. Surely they have all kinds of influences in their sound, but... To put it shortly, My Own Grave are a vicious bunch eating Vomitory, Necrophobic, At The Gates and modern thrash metal influences (The Haunted for example) and shitting the fierce amalgamation of them. That's what they are; on fire! They sound so enthusiastic and happy doing this stuff. Just listen to those fingers flying on fretboards and sticks dancing on drumheads. Talk about explosive energy. The band's roots lie in the mid-90s and early 21st century brutality and they definitely leave all old school dödsmetall untouched, aside the evil feel of certain riffs. Mainly the band dashes like a bullet, but there are some breathers along the way, such as fantastic 'Heathen Divinity'. The boys have been reasonable with the length of their compositions, which is nothing but a totally wise move, because this way every song has something to offer, even though there are 12 songs lined up for your headbanging pleasure. One thing that makes My Own Grave better than all those "clone" bands is that they are able to add some extra dimension to what they are influenced by, so they kind of take an extra step.

The vocals are what expected: Growling, low grunt and high shrieking. They definitely do their job. The same thing goes with the lyrics as goes with the music; the band take the familiar stuff and add some of their. The lyrics about war, Hellraiser (yay), hell's legions, killing and fucking religions actually have some wit into them, at least most of the songs, if not all. The sound is clean, maybe too much so to tell the truth, but that way you can at least hear all the fancy playing. It is definitely more thrash than death, and should be the other way around. The bass should've been louder in the mix, because there's some bass playing to be heard. It all sounds like you'd expect it to sound, and it's just too safe now. The cover art is lame. Looks like a shitty, half-rotten face looking at your anus from a very, very shitty toilet bowl. The covers' typography sucks, because there are too many fonts used. This all makes the covers look cheap and stupid computer job.

'Unleash' is nothing original. However, it stands shoulders higher than a big part of similar efforts. If you miss good Swedish sounding death/thrash, then My Own Grave is the band for you to check out. You could do so much worse, so many times!

Rating: 7+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
02/13/2009 13:39