Grave: Into the Grave (1991)
"Enter the gates, gates of madness ... Into the darkness, into the grave."
Grave is rarely the first band mentioned when conversations turn to the classic Swedish death metal scene of the early 1990s, but, for my money, there's no album that more fully epitomizes that sound and spirit than 1991's Into the Grave.
Indeed, though Grave would quickly lose their way amid chronic line-up instability and ill-advised sonic experimentation, their pioneering contributions to the S.D.M. style simply can't be overstated.
With roots dating back to 1986, when they formed as Corpse in the Gotland island town of Visby (located in the middle of the Baltic sea, it's a popular Scandinavian vacation destination), Grave adopted their new name in '88 and had recorded a half-dozen demos by '91.
It was then they signed to Century Media and entered the modest-looking (see above) but legendary Sunlight Studios, outside Stockholm, where they spent the second half of June cutting Into the Grave with resident producer/engineer Tomas Skogsberg.
Before we go any further, I encourage you to read Skogsberg's candid interview with guitar pedal manufacturers Boss, in which he explains that "the sound we got [combined] the HM-2 pedal and the Peavey combo amplifier mic'ed with an Audio-Technica ATM41, and the desk had a bit more electricity going into it than it's supposed to."
The resulting eleven tracks couldn't be any more representative of the now classic S.D.M. template: detuned buzzsaw guitars, meaty jackhammer drums, and, of course, bowel-shuddering growls -- all of them keyed up for maximum brutality.
Ironically, most of these songs also lacked the small but necessary distinctions (not least among them the slightest melodic sensibility) that helped contemporaries like Entombed, Unleashed, and Dismember stand out of the extreme metal pack.
But see if I care!
Grave standouts like "Deformed," "For Your God," "Obscure Infinity," and "Extremely Rotten Flesh" delivered premium S.D.M. delights (still do at most of their shows), the likes of which a nostalgic fanboy of the style like me is helpless to resist.
I'm particularly fond of the deliberate, here-comes-the-pain build-up and explosive payoff of "Day of Morning," the devastating opening riff of "Inhuman," and the music, not the lyrics, in the shocking, necrophiliac romance, "In Love."
What do you take me for, some kind of weirdo?
Alas, as I alluded to earlier, vocalist/guitarist Jörgen Sandström, guitarist Ola Lindgren, and drummer Jensa Paulsson (bassist Jonas Torndal was soon dismissed), inadvertently exposed their songwriting limitations as they gradually abandoned the hallowed S.D.M. aesthetic over ensuing releases.
To put it another way, perhaps no Swedish death metal band made better use, nor was as dependent, on the Sunlight Studios sound, than Grave -- for better or for worse.
Nevertheless, more than 30 years after its release, Into the Grave remains essential listening, and that's why it was a no-brainer selection for this list of Swedish death metal albums everyone should own that I compiled for Loudwire.
More Classic Swedish Death Metal: At the Gates’ The Red in the Sky is Ours, Carnage’s Dark Recollections, Comecon’s Converging Conspiracies, Dark Tranquillity’s The Gallery, Dismember’s Like an Everflowing Stream, Edge of Sanity’s Unorthodox, Entombed’s Left Hand Path, God Macabre’s The Winterlong, Merciless’ The Treasures Within, In Flames’ The Jester Race, Necrophobic’s The Nocturnal Silence, Tiamat’s Sumerian Cry, Unleashed’s Where No Life Dwells.
