COMMON GRAVE
Dust Of My Existence
(Vacula Productions)
29:18min

Still on the same tragically intense and bleak path, Italian COMMON GRAVE release their second full-length album through Vacula Productions. After the well acclaimed “Il Male Di Vivere” (Italian for ‘The Trouble Of Living’), “Dust Of My Existence” supplies the listener with another 6 tunes of a despairing Black Metal that slowly builds up a very captivating atmosphere along its nearly 40 minutes. The constant mid-paced cutting riffs are still the greatest feature of this quintet, setting the mood for their existentialistic message. I have been listening to this album during my wanderings through Dublin town, and COMMON GRAVE’s music did engage me into those isolating moments when despite the touristic city’s night rush, all around you is just a silent, meaningless void. I believe that is precisely the point of creating such music genre, to keep the listener engrossed with its inhospitable self and immersed in one’s private confusion, an idea that is conveyed here with mastery through its music and also reinforced by the grey pages of its booklet. As for the description of their sound, not only the riffs, but also the guitar and vocal arrangements are amazing in this album, denoting some very emotional passages that sure derive from a heavily influent Doom Metal background. The instruments sound quite distinct, however the final product is a massive wall of sound! As a drummer myself, I particularly like the way its drums fill up every single riff within its creative simplicity, allowing only some minor deviances that worked really well. This is an album that reminds me a lot of KROHM’s “The Haunting Presence,” not necessarily for the similarity between riffs, but certainly for the clear and yet primitive intensity with which such raw Black Metal is delivered. Here’s a band that I cannot envisage playing big concerts and entertaining enthusiastic Metalheads, but rather featuring lone listeners’ soundtracks for long and hopeless nights. For all further information, check out theirs or their label’s websites at the following locations: www.facebook.com/commongrave, http://commongrave.bandcamp.com or www.vacula.com.ua

Diego Rodrigues

Diego Rodrigues

Related reviews / interviews:
COMMON GRAVE - Dehumanized (Mario Cubero)

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