Review
Nuclear Blast has built much of its heavy-rock catalogue around riff-first bands, and Graveyard arrive there with their seventh album after a decision that matters: the Gothenburg trio ran the sessions themselves and brought in Pelle Gunnerfeldt only for the mix. Three years after the murkier, slower-burning Six, the amplifiers are loud again, and the band sounds more sure of its own instincts.
The fuzz pedal does much of the work. "Back From The Grave" opens on gravel-thick guitar, and "Tongue Tied" follows with a brisk, bruising gallop that leaves little room to breathe. The tempo drops for "A Better Cut (Note To Self)", where a slower blues pulse lets the lead guitar slice in with sharp, uneven bursts. Joakim Nilsson's rough, unpolished voice stays near the front throughout, while Truls Mörck's bass gives "Time To Tell" its insistent spine.
Nine songs in under forty minutes, with no detours. The record is at its best when it is most direct, and the grit reads less as a style than as a working method. "Dead Note" closes things with a bass-led drift that is the only moment where the album exhales.
