After their very fine “The Sea Grave” album from 2013, I somehow lost track of Barcelona based Death Metal squad GRAVEYARD. Shame on me, but there’s always too many releases and too little time… So I was a little surprised that I missed a whole album (“…For Thine Is The Darkness” in 2016) and some smaller releases in the time passed. Right now, they are here with a new full length entitled “Hold Back The Dawn”. And this album shows a band that took a few big steps in their development. The basically Swedish styled Death Metal from “The Sea Grave” was very much spiced up with elaborate, sometimes epic songwriting and excellent guitars that are not afraid of harmonic breaks and melodic solos. In addition, the basic atmosphere is darker and gloomier, which is not just a result of the deceleration of the basic beats, but also caused by the rare, yet dynamic use of keyboard effects. Production and the sound itself do their part to this impressive progress. Thus the recent style of GRAVEYARD reminded me of bands like SULPHUR AEON or earlier HYPOCRISY very often, especially in the slower parts that are in the majority on “Hold Back The Dawn”. After the variable opener ‘Swarm Of Flies’ and the overall more blasting ‘Winds Like Daggers’, the accelerator is not that often on full throttle any more on side one. ‘Of Extant Cults And Living Terrors’ with its HYPOCRISY vibes and a lot of excellent solos is the start of a double pack of excellent dark and doomy anthems that culminates in the long ‘Hurled Unto Damnation’. The second half of the album has a similar start as the first half, ‘The Storm Above (Port Sulphur)’ is more a raider, while ‘The Shrike’ presses every button. ‘O Beast I Fear Thy Name’ is a fine example what variability really means before ‘Madre De La Noche’ ends the album in a pretty epic way. And instantly, I hit “repeat” to listen to “Hold Back The Dawn” once more, an album that is among my favourites of this year, since it is a really great Death Metal album that fits the dark times. If you feel addressed, visit www.facebook.com/deathmetalgraveyard or www.war-anthem.de