UMUR "Out Of The Voiceless Grave" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act The Lurking Fear. The album was released through Century Media Records in August 2017. The Lurking Fear was formed in 2016 and features several prominent members of the Swedish death metal scene: Lead vocalist Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates, Grotesque, Lock Up, The Crown), drummer Adrian Erlandsson (At the Gates, The Haunted, Paradise Lost, Cradle of Filth, Vallenfyre), guitarist Fredrik Wallenberg (Embalmed, Skitsystem, Sarcasm), guitarist Jonas Stålhammer (At the Gates, Bombs of Hades, God Macabre, Macabre End, The Crown), and bassist Andreas Axelsson (Edge of Sanity, Tormented, Marduk, Infestdead).

Stylistically the material on "Out Of The Voiceless Grave" is old school death metal. Playing that style was also the premise of forming The Lurking Fear, and the band arguably succeed well in their mission. It´s audible that these are seasoned musicians because they deliver the music with great skill and conviction. It´s brutal, it´s occult (the H.P. Lovecraft lyrical themes help pull in that direction), it´s distorted and raw, and Lindberg has changed his voice a bit to a slightly deeper growling style, although he still has the higher pitched hysterical edge to his delivery that we´re used to from his performances with At the Gates.

"Out Of The Voiceless Grave" features a raw and powerful sounding production, which suits the material perfectly, and paired with the high level musicianship, and some good quality songwriting (highlights include tracks like "Upon Black Winds" and "Beneath Menacing Sands", but there´s not a single sub par track on the album, which is more varied than it initially may seem), the album is upon conclusion a great quality old school death metal release and a very promising debut, which begs for a follow-up as soon as possible. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Nightfly I don’t know where Adrian Erlandsson, drummer with The Lurking Fear finds the time. He always seems to have something on the go – At The Gates (naturally), The Haunted, Paradise Lost, Vallenfyre to name just a few bands he’s played with and now this. He’s joined by At The Gates/ former Lock Up vocalist Tomas Lindberg, guitarists Jonas Stalhammar and Fredrik Wallenberg and bassist Andreas Axellsson who between them have played in the ranks of Edge Of Sanity, The Crown, Skitsystem, Disfear and Tormented. I guess this makes them some kind of supergroup. Sadly supergroups don’t always add up to the sum of their parts and can be disappointing. Fortunately that’s not the case here and The Lurking Fear, named after an H.P. Lovecraft short story, have delivered a class album of old school style death metal. This was their self-imposed remit, the band saying they wanted to create an album inspired by the likes of early Death, Morbid Angel, Autopsy and Possessed to name a few. It’s to the bands credit that it hasn’t come across as sounding contrived with these self-imposed limitations, but then these guys are all experienced players with years spent in the extreme metal arena.

The list of bands above should give you a clue that this isn’t going to sound like At The Gates style melodic death metal. Instead of the Gothenburg sound it has far more in common with what came out of the other side of Sweden from Stockholm. That is dirty, crushingly heavy punk infused old school death metal. The sympathetic production is perfect – thick, powerful and organic but with enough clarity to hear those killer riffs which are not in short supply. The songs are short and to the point but still have room to develop ideas and changes of tempo from blast beats to slower doom infused riffs, though in the main the pace is kept fast. Vortex Spawn and The Starving Gods Of Old, which open the album after the short instrumental title track, are as good an example as any as what you’re in for here. Straight to the point and packing considerable punch with tons of energy and the riffs to match. Fortunately they keep coming one after another with barely a weak moment throughout the entire album. In fact if anything it gets better, The Cold Jaws of Death being another highlight. Song titles like this and Tentacles Of Blackened Horror are in keeping with the Lovecraftian imagery the band clearly want to convey. Winged Death kicks off like Judas Priest’s Exciter but there the similarities end. No disrespect to Priest who I love greatly, but they have never released anything sounding this evil or dirty – a suitable sense of dread and foreboding doom intact throughout brought to an effectively slower conclusion on closer Beneath Menacing Sands. Great stuff!

I really hope that Out Of The Voiceless Grave doesn’t turn out to be a one off. Sure, I’m looking forward to the next At The Gates album but at the moment I’m more than happy to have The Lurking Fear to be going on with. I’d be very surprised if this doesn’t make my top 10 at the end of the year.