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The Black Planet

GRAVE LINES – Fed Into The Nihilist Engine

Luís Rodrigues 16/04/2018 Comments Off on GRAVE LINES – Fed Into The Nihilist Engine

Grave Lines

While doing a very well received UK tour with Black Moth, the band Grave Lines showcased some new songs and announced that a new album would be coming out soon. With the revealing of the album title and release date came a music video of the same name: “Fed Into The Nihilist Engine”. We got a chance to listen to the whole album ahead of its release (4th of May 2018) through New Heavy Sounds and can now tell you all about it.

Having listened to the band’s first record “Welcome To Nothing”, the first thing that is immediately noticeable, even before hitting play, is that the track count went up to 9, compared to the previous 5. Some tracks are shorter in length, going as short as 1 minute and 58 seconds, contrasting with the shortest song length of 6 minutes and 43 seconds from the previous one.

While listening to the album, it is clear that the band changed their sound big time. It’s still a Grave Lines album, the style of vocals, guitars, drums and bass are all still there, yet it sounds different. It’s the same dark, bleak, doom goodness, but in this new album there seems to be a greater care in making sure that the different tracks connect better together and feel part of one single cohesive timeline rather than individual pieces. The heavy loud sound of the previous album gives way to a different kind of heaviness. One that is achieved through creating an atmosphere and setting up the right mood rather than plain loudness, with a few hints of early Black Sabbath. It shows a greater range of influences which complement each other nicely.

Between each song there is an interlude, these are shorter tracks where the instrumentation is minimal and it feels as if all the lights go off and there is only a spotlight aimed at the singer Jake Harding for him to lay himself bare. These are moments when the self-introspective nature of the lyrics becomes more obvious. Using the term interlude feels unfair as these are fully realized songs, but at the same time they are dramatically different from other tracks in the album. A couple of these “songs-in-between-songs” were actually played live on their UK tour with Black Moth, and even live they work very well.

The whole album should please doom and sludge lovers and alike. Grave Lines are still a fairly young band, but it’s only a matter of time until you start hearing more about them. This is one band to watch out for and if you get a chance to see them live you should not hesitate and take it.

8/10

About Grave Lines

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Review by Luís Rodrigues
Managing Editor: Filipe Gomes

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About The Author

I've been doing concert photography since 2008 and occasionally write some reviews. I stopped doing concert photography when I moved from Portugal to London back in 2012, but got back into it in 2018. New year's resolutions...

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