By Kara Hinman
I was really excited to check out this release. I haven’t actually heard Sourvein, so Graves At Sea was what caught my eye.
First, the album cover is rad. I think it fits this album nicely. Wolves can be kinda generic in the metal world, but throw them into the sea and make them race past a haunted ship…now that’s brutal. But back to the music – this release is full of that dark, doom sludge, exactly what Graves At Sea is known for. Sometimes I think sludgy bands can get repetitive really quickly, but that’s definitely not the case with these songs. You get a lot of awesome break downs, but a lot of build ups that really change it up. The guitars for both bands are just so spot on. All in all, these are great songs to put on the split. I especially like the first song by Graves At Sea, 'Betting on Black' and Sourvein’s final song, 'Follow the Light'.
One of the things that always make Graves At Sea so unique are the vocals. I really dug the vocals on this release. I think they were recorded really well – not muffled, and a bit of an echo you can still hear over the raging guitars and wailing drums. It definitely takes center stage on their side of the split. But I cannot get enough of the guitars from Graves At Sea. They’re the perfect tone for this kind of sludge. They’re really dynamic with the perfect amount of distortion to get that effect.
I got really excited when the Sourvein songs began to play. It was a great intro to their side of the album. Absolutely more death rock vocals, but with that underlying sludge/psych guitar. The final song, 'Follow the Light' was a great way to end Sourvein’s side of the album.
It changed pace up a bit and I felt like I could be on some LSD trip listening to the album. But honestly, it would probably get a little dark and deep for all that. I’ll stick with the herbals for now.
If you are into sludge or just some good ‘ol dark rock-n-roll, I would definitely suggest this split. Can’t ever go wrong with combining two great bands that mesh really well together on the same album.
