Artist: Grave Infestation
Country: Canada
Label: Dark Descent Records / Invictus Productions
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD
Year: 2025
The last couple of years Grave Infestation has evolved into a rather smooth rolling Death Metal machine. If you’d listen back to the band’s earliest output, ‘Infesticide’ and ‘Infestation Of Rotting Death’, the two demos 2018 and 2019, and you compare it to this new sophomore album then there’s no other conclusion than admitting that the band made tremendous steps forward. Maybe not so much in terms of their musical direction, but even more so when it comes to the execution of their take on the Death Metal genre.
The first demos were fairly rough and unpolished affairs. They didn’t only had their charm, but they were clearly the starting point of great things to come. With each consecutive release, with maybe their split 7” EP with Sněť (2023) as the only exception, the band refined and perfected their craft. Yet, they did so without losing anything from their initial formula of “Old School” Death Metal in the style of Autopsy, Death, Obituary and Possessed with a good and clear admiration for the doomier side of the genre and classic Thrash Metal as well – there’s enough crazy Slayer leads and riffs around here.
‘Carnage Gathers’ is just another step in Grave Infestation’s ongoing trip to underground Death Metal fame. The blending of all sorts of traditional Death Metal, slower passages and furious whammy-leads is, in itself, nothing new. But it is the way these Canadians build their songs that makes them stand out of the pack. It is exactly their way of cranking out heavy and bulldozing riffs without tuning their guitars into insanely low regions that allows Grave Infestation’s Death Metal to sound much more captivating. Impenetrable walls of sound are a cheap way of disguising a lack of talent when it comes to song writing and none of that applies to these boys and girl. They offer you an album that is brimming with dynamics, memorable riffs, great hooks and tasty guitar leads.
I have said it before and I will say it again, this is the kind of Old School Death Metal that saves the genre from its creative collapse, crumbling appeal and overall credibility. It is not that Grave Infestation is offering something unique or truly special, but it is played with conviction and dedication. Death Metal is not about delivering the heaviest sound, the most riffs per track or for “slamming” and “beat downs”. Listen to ‘Scream Bloody Gore’, ‘Severed Survival’, ‘Seven Churches’ or ‘Cause Of Death’ and you’ll hear it is all about song writing.
