By Kyle Harcott
Released in advance of their [out now!] full-length on Northern Horde, Gainesville’s Hot Graves give us a taste of their brand of headripping thrashy D-beat on this seven-inch, comprised of two originals and an Anti-Cimex cover.
The title track opens with zero fucking around, Hot Graves clearly all about the go-for-the-throat. Tearing the gate from its hinges with a righteous D-beat attack, Hot Graves counter their crust with covering-fire riffs that are straight-up Florida death-metal. The whole thing sounds righteously ugly, like it was recorded in an analog sewer; crust falling off of the guitars with every stroke of the strings. But then shit gets weird around two-thirds of the way thru the song, when in the midst of all guns blazing, Hot Graves decide they want to go all funeral doom and lay it on thick and slow. But like the proverb says, what slows down must go fast and soon enough the Graves are finish up the fray with more ripping madness.
Track two is ‘Baphomet’s Revenge’ which serves up some straight-up thrash with its crust, then alternates a little fullbore blastbeat action for shits’n’giggles, cherry-topping the works off with a Kerry King-styled solo for good measure. Hints again of Floridian death metal’s influence rearing its ugly head.
Finally, there’s the cover of Anti-Cimex’s ‘Make My Day’, one ripping minute and twenty-eight scorching seconds of no-frills discrust. Straight, to-the-point like a short, sharp shock, ‘Make My Day’ is a nonstop pummelling that pays perfect homage to the original musically, but manages to smear Hot Graves’ DNA all over it with belchy deathgrunt vocals.
In the mood for some thrash-worship discore that manages to fuck up the mix with occasional blastbeats and/or molasses-slow doom? Pick up this seven-inch from Hot Graves as a taster, or as a companion piece to their just-released full-length, Knights in White Phosphorus.
(Greyhaze Records)
