UMUR "Nine Graves" is an EP release by German death metal act Necros Christos. The EP was released in collaboration between Sepulchral Voice Records and Ván Records in July 2014. Necros Christos experienced quite a bit of (underground) success with the release of their second full-length studio album "Doom of the Occult (2011)", which generally received a lot of praise from fans and critics alike. They´ve been around since 2001 though and they´ve released a lot of minor releases before releasing their debut full-length studio album "Triune Impurity Rites" in 2007. "Nine Graves" is however the band´s first release featuring new original material since the release of "Doom of the Occult (2011)".

When that is the case it´s probably a good idea that "Nine Graves" features no less than 9 tracks and a full playing time of 40:16 minutes. So this could well have been catalogued as a full-length studio album, but the band chose to release it as an EP.

Stylistically the music on "Nine Graves" pretty much continues the occult themed old school death metal style with doomy sections of "Doom of the Occult (2011)". It´s well written, and slightly more adventurous than your standard release in this particular style of death metal, but it´s still tradition first and adventurous ideas second. on this release the band spice up the EP with shorter atmospheric tracks, featuring acoustic guitars and percussion, between the more "regular" death metal tracks, and they also include a longer atmospheric track in "Gate: Solh". It´s all meant to enhance the dark occult atmosphere of the EP, and the band are pretty successful in doing that. Sometimes like on "Gate: Solh" the ambience drags for too long and I find myself yearning for a slice of nice brutal death metal, but the atmospheric tracks predominantly work pretty well within the overall concept of "Nine Graves".

The death metal tracks on the album are pretty effective, and all feature two of the most important and often overlooked features in death metal, which are catchy riffs and vocal phrases. This is not all about brutality and playing technically complex riffs, but about dark and evil atmospheres and relatively memorable hooks. The best example is how many times the word "Crucifix" is used in the track "Black Bone Crucifix", the rhythm of the vocal line, and how the word is pronounced. It´s pretty simple yet incredibly effective.

So "Nine Graves" is well written, but it´s also well performed by a band that clearly knows how to handle their instruments. The growling vocals are delivered in a convincing fashion too. "Nine Graves" also features a well sounding production, that´s actually slightly less gritty than I had expected, but it´s still brutal and raw, and suits the music perfectly. Overall a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating isn´t all wrong.