Second EP by Polish Black Metal band.
Black Metal has once again been given a new breath of life into a very stale period of time. The true Underground has yet again provided great music from true musicians who write what is inside their souls! Grá, playing traditional Swedish Black Metal in the old Scandinavian way.
After their highly acclaimed “Helfärd” EP (2010), their self-titled full-length album “Grá” (2011) and several live performances with bands like Taake, Absu, Glorior Belli among many others, Swedish Grá with members of Cursed 13, Domgård, Spazmosity, Wan back with a whole 27 minutes mini-album.
"Necrology Of The Witch" is Grá’s third part of a planned four in their “Charon Suite” concept sequence. Part two, their self-titled debut full-length, stands up effectively on its own even without the rest of the series, but "Necrology Of The Witch" feels much more like an interlude in the larger sequence. Of six tracks on here, only three are new full-length songs. Intro “In Cordibus Vestris” is inseparable from the title track, which is a slow, dark, primitivist Black Metal number punctuated by the piercing chime of a lone bell and snatches of monastic chanting, while “Οδεύοντας προς την Στύγα” is purely Ambient and yet a standout track nonetheless in terms of atmosphere, with rolling peals of thunder and the sound of a deep, lonely horn blowing over the quiet lapping of water. “Worms and Crows” is a distinctly retro-feeling yet impressively varied piece of classic Black Metal that manoeuvres seamlessly between sweeping speed and a rumbling, bassy groove. Finally, the eight-minute “Helfärd II” is an ultra-slow, static-drenched meander that’s arguably the weakest song on here for its sheer length and repetitiveness. There’s a constant sense that this song should be leading up to some kind of resolution, but it never reaches one; presumably, of course, because the finale is being saved for the fourth and last part of the suite. The net result is that while this mini-album has some great ideas on it, as an overall listening experience it’s perhaps somewhat muted by comparison to their earlier material.
Unexploded Records, 2013 (UER049). Made in Sweden. First press.
Tracklist:
1. In Cordibus Vestris 01:27
2. Necrology of the Witch 05:14
3. Οδεύοντας προς την Στύγα 02:24
4. Worms and Crows 04:23
5. Helfärd pt. II 08:03
6. Freezing Moon (Mayhem cover) 06:25
Total playing time: 27:56