GRAVEYARD "The Altar Of Sculpted Skulls" Mini LP (Doomentia Records 2011)
Even more swedeath insanity, this time courtesy of Barcelona’s very own GRAVEYARD! Once again, this particular band is somehow no stranger to DOOMENTIA since few months back, their guitarist-cum-producer and outspoken leader Javi (aka ‘Bastard’) agreed to have them release the debut EP of his eclectic side-project WOLFHEAD. Yet, unlike the latter, GRAVEYARD had set out from day one for a very specific sound: old-school Swedish death fucking metal!!! And after a critically acclaimed debut album ‘One With The Dead’ two years ago, their brand-new EP – released on CD by PULVERISED RECORDS from Singapore – once again proves that you don’t need to be from Stockholm to fully master that fat buzzsaw sound that emerged in the late 80’s in the stinky rehearsal room of NIHILIST.
According to their bass player and vocalist Julkarn, the purpose of ‘The Altar Of Sculpted Skull’ is both to give something new to their fans and honour the memory of REAL death-metal. “Since 'One’ came out in 2009 and we haven't even started recording our second album - though it is mostly written by now - we thought it would be cool to release some new songs and make everyone know that we are still here, playing Death Metal and raising hell!”
Besides four new songs written specifically for this release and a striking cover designed by Matt Carr from Putrid Gore Art (Hooded Menace, Cianide etc.) and inspired by a real altar called Tzompantli Julkarn visited in Mexico in the amazing ruins of Cholula (“except that it didn’t have a necromancer performing forbidden rites on it ah!”), ‘The Altar Of Sculpted Skull’ also includes two re-recorded two tracks: “Well, “Howl of the Black Death” is a song we have played live for some time and it initially was featured on a limited 7'' split with Terrorist. We really liked it and few people heard it so we decided to remix it and have it here. “Ritual” was on our demo ‘Into The Mausoleum’ and its original sound pretty much sucked. We thought it was too good to be left that way so we gave it a welcome revamp.”
‘The Altar Of Sculpted Skull’ ain’t just a simple appetizer while we’re waiting on the follow-up of ‘One With The Dead’ (“it will be called ‘A Shroud Of Darkness’ and we’ve written 13 new tracks for it, although most likely 9 or 10 will end up on the actual album”) or with the upcoming concerts the band had already booked with like-minded deathsers DEMONICAL or LIE IN RUINS. No, this another proof – as if anybody needed one – that the old-school death-metal revolution will have to happen with GRAVEYARD!