GRACELESS – Shadowlands LP (transparent yellow) Worship the Riff

Let's start with the album artwork.  I love this artwork.  It looks like a refined old school death metal album cover, especially with that super old school-style logo in the upper left hand corner.  It has very modern coloration but still very old school themes and I love it.

Now that I've given the artwork a quick shoutout, let's look at the music and the album as a whole.  So on top of killer artwork and an overall old school feel, the whole album has a very doom metal feeling to it as well.  Make sense, right?  It's doomed death metal.  But I really hate doomed death metal.  I like faster death metal like brutal death metal or technical death metal.  Maybe it's the multi-layered songs or the heavy sludge on this album that makes me enjoy it.  No, it's definitely those two aspects of the album.

Wow, this stuff is layered.  It's got the main riffage of psychedelic doom metal and the sludge resounding from those riffs, but they don't just keep hammering down on the same notes over and over for like eight minutes like your normal doomed death metal band.  No, they actually switch it up.  They'll add a guitar solo or a bass solo to compliment the chaotic atmosphere (a great example is in "Sumerian Flames").

As far as structure goes, the album has an amazing layout.  It starts with "Shadowlands" and you can hear the vocalist at the end of the first or second verse say "Welcome to the Shadowlands!" and it's one of the coolest things ever.  The opening riff is a perfect intro to the album, as it shows the riff style that this band participates in.  But the main verse riff is not my favorite, as it is fairly predictable.  I mean, it's not bad.  I know I give a lot of bands a lot of heat for giving predictable, unoriginal riffs, but Graceless seems to pull these off here.  I may have the next note playing in my head before it even gets strummed, but it doesn't mean it sounds bad.  This is because Graceless is actually able to differentiate their riffs and add cool elements like a double guitar attack that doesn't consist of both guitars playing the same damn thing. This is evident in the rest of their album, especially "Sumerian Flames," my favorite track off the album.

So, overall, it's a pretty solid release.  I don't have a lot to say about it other thank it's got the riffs and atmosphere to be called doom and the ferocity, melody, and diversity to be death metal.  It's a great debut, and I look forward to another release.  Like, normally I wouldn't be interested, but this is a very promising release.  Good job, Graceless.