UMUR "Tales from a Thousand Graves" is the debut full-length studio album by Norwegian/ English grindcore/ death metal act Gangrenator. The album was released in March 2010 by Apocalyptic Empire Records. Gangrenator is yet another project which features Mathew "Kvohst" McMercenery on vocals. Kvohst has been extremely prolific in recent years on the more experimental part of the extreme metal scene, providing vocals to albums by Code, Dødheimsgard, Void and Decrepit Spectre. In addition to that Kvohst has recently released an experimental folk album with Hexvessel. A tremendously talented and versatile vocalist.

Gangrenator is a completely different beast though. It´s like Kvohst just needed to spit out all his aggression and not think too much about everlasting artistic values. The music on "Tales from a Thousand Graves" is fiercely aggressive grindcore/ death metal delivered with just the right snarling attitude and violent conviction. The 13 track, 24:42 minutes long album is almost over before you´re able to register what hit you. But it´s a perfect length for an album in this style. From the first second of the opening track "Taste the Skull" to the last second of the closing track "Skinner", we´re treated to fast-paced crossover/ grindcore and catchy death metal with absolutely caustic vocals on top. Aggression is THE key word here. The songs are generally short and simple, but very effective and I have a hard time not banging my head like a madman while listening to this album. It has that kind of effect on me. The basic tracks are enhanced by some atmosphere creating movie samples. I like the fact that the tracks aren´t too serious all the time and some of the samples also help to that.

I don´t think Gangrenator sounds like any other band but there are elements here and there where I´m reminded of early Carcass, Repulsion and even Macabre ( take a listen to "Miniature Limb Collection"), but again there are only hints here and there, so hats off to Gangrenator for creating a unique sounding grindcore/ death metal album. That is not something you hear everyday. A 4 star rating is well deserved.