GRAVEYARD — Hisingen Blues (review)

GRAVEYARD — Hisingen Blues album cover Album · 2011 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
Grateful are the hardrockers...

Genre: veeery old school metal

Although stylistically different bands like Noctum and Graveyard can be considered representatives of a movement in Sweden and elsewhere which retrospectively seeks back to the very earliest incarnations of heavy metal music and its roots in 70s hard rock.

While Noctum seek inspiration mainly in Black Sabbath and similarly doom-ladden early metal bands, Graveyard seem more inspired by Led Zeppelin (and Joakim Nilsson's raw voice sounds like something in between Robert Plant and "Manic Frustration"-era Eric Wagner [who's known to do some Plant copy-catting anyway]), and Graveyard appears generally less doom-ladden than Noctum. Nonetheless, tracks like the heavy "No Good, Mr Holden" and "Ungrateful Ar the Dead", the dark ballads "Uncomfortably Numb" and "Longing" (the latter, which is an instrumental, even has a sort of Morricone-ish spaghetti-western atmosphere to it and is a candidate for my favorite track of the album) and the more uptempo "Buying Truth (Tack & Forlåt)" do have a certain melancholy and darkness to them.

Musically, Graveyard's dirty bluesrock-driven style emphasizes groovy and twangy guitar-riffage backed up by a fat, deep, and broad Geezer Butler-esque bass and hippie-style fill-in rich drumming. In other words, "Hisingen Blues" has all the things that dark 70s hard rock should have, although this is 2011.

The production is raw and retro (and analogue) and has an authentic 70s sound, but lacks the obligatory crackling noise of vinyl releases of the 70s. This not really a problem to me anyways, since I am not that much of a vinyl enthusiast, and I think that younger listeners who are used to the polished production associated with many modern metal styles will also appreciate the clearness of the mixing itself.

Although Graveyard are a retro band, they do strike me as being somewhat more original than many of the other bands who are on the same mission to revive metal in its earliest form as they are, and I am sure that the dirty, raw blues-driven hardrock on "Hisingen Blues" will appeal to fans of proto-metal and early hard rock.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
Coffin Joe wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I agree with you, Longing is the best track on the album! The heavy Morricone inspired theme has is just awesome!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Unearthly Litanies of Despair Death Metal
ENGULFED
Buy this album from MMA partners
It Beckons Us All....... Black Metal
DARKTHRONE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Death Is Not The End Doom Metal
GLOSSA
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Way Forward Sludge Metal
BLACK TUSK
Buy this album from MMA partners
Till Aska Atmospheric Sludge Metal
WALK THROUGH FIRE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 2 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 3 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed