Time Signature Is this place really poison...

Genre: sludge metal

After a hiatus of nearly nine years, the sludgemeisters in Graves at Sea return in full force this year, releasing both a split and an EP. The EP was released in April and is entitled This Place Is Poison and contains three songs distributed over two tracks.

The first track, which is the title track, is a minimalistic sludgefest evolving around simplistic and crushingly heavy riffs delivered with plenty of fuzz and accompanied by dynamic drums. The vocals are harsh and alternate between gruff guttural grunting and cartoonish screeching. While the music itself works pretty well, the vocals do not sit well with me, but harsh vocals are, of course, integral to the universe of sludge, so there is no way around them. The second track consists of two songs, the latter of which is a sludged up (or do we say sludged down?) cover version of the classic Black Sabbath song, which is definitely interesting and does the original justice to a large extent. The former is an acoustic instrumental, which is actually extremely good. Of course, this is also a Black Sabbath cover. It is dark and brooding and oozes with introspective melancholy. For my money, 'Orchid' is the best tune on th EP.

As with most other sludge, this release is unpleasant and challenging. Its heavy and super distorted sound will scare away more people than it attracts, but those who are into sludge and understand this genre are bound to love it for three reasons. Firstly, it marks the return of Graves at Sea. Secondly, it contains all features that define sludge metal. Thirdly, it treats the listener to two interesting Black Sabbath covers.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)