Album Review: Grave Hex - Vermian Death
Reviewed by Sam Jones
You have to love how many new, younger bands are emerging all the time now. Grave Hex are the latest in the long line of burgeoning acts drooling to let loose their art upon the world, and they seem poised to precisely that with Vermian Death, their first full length. Formed out of Helsinki, Finland, in 2024, the band rapidly wrote and recorded material together, with a planned release date of August 22nd in mind for Vermian Death, an opus steeped in putridity and viscous slime. Releasing a Cassette edition via Night Terrors Records, and a CD version via Cavernous Records, Vermian Death stands ready to jettison Grave Hex into the limelight. Eliciting soundscapes reminiscent to bands such as Undergang, Autopsy, Morbific, Grave Hex are perfectly placed amidst Finland’s illustrious repute for grossly noxious death metal. This is their first album as it is equally our first chance to decide whether Grave Hex should be counted amongst Finland’s reviled, and renowned, icons.
You want something filthy? Grave Hex launch you headfirst into such a soundscape as their opening guitar sweep almost tears itself from the mix with how much grit and grime feels latched upon their performance. Though the band’s production isn’t as crushing or monumental as records of this calibre often are, Grave Hex portray a miasmic and total environment that your senses can get lost in. Curiously the band have opted for a much fuzzier form of guitar tone, whereby the impact they hit with is derived from a more active, destabilised essence that threatens to break loose at any time. Therefore, instead of punishing us with slabs of tone, Grave Hex imbue their performance with an encompassing wall of sound that one could seemingly peer through given the fuzzy nature of the guitar work yet isn’t so dense that you can’t view past what’s occurring in the moment.
The band also tread this fine line between incessant chaos and organised structure as they play. Their sound is bristling with ire and strength, as if the record came attired in spikes and barbed wire. They explode more times than I can count where their intensity climbs and the blast beats are employed to the fullest effect, but I never felt like they lost such complete control of themselves that they couldn’t direct me to my intended destination. The tone this record plays with may bounce and serrate and forever jostle us as tracks develop and succeed one another but it will not uproot you entirely. You’ll always have full control of your faculties as Vermian Death proceeds.
It’s nice to discover though, contrary to how the record otherwise sounds, the band are rather adept at writing death metal with steady progression in mind. Vermian Death is an opus that weaves, rises and falls with differing tempo throughout its runtime, however the riffs are surprisingly well-pronounced, where licks are given their due to be heard in spite of the commanding, boiling soundscape otherwise generated. There’s certainly speed in mind here but it’s far from the sole priority for Grave Hex as many of their most enamouring sequences come from songwriting that’s steady and carries murderous gait. It doesn’t need to be super fast to illicit ideas of hatred and menace, for the gradual momentum of the guitar work brings that to our minds organically.
I love how the bass stands as its own, independent force here. It can be an ill fate for the bass to mirror the primary guitar’s riffs and thus fade into obscurity as the latter takes the spotlight. But in this instance the bass is thrown entirely separate away from the guitar so you can enjoy the pair equally together. I appreciate that the basslines are completely different to the riffs and the band, through the mix, enable us the opportunity to listen and admire the juxtaposing motions of guitar and bass together. This effect also aids the production as well for removing the bass from beneath the guitar actually lightens the performance Grave Hex provide for you now won’t be feeling the strenuous pressure such a soundscape would infer if the reverse had been applied. Rather than being punched one and again, the band utilise both hands now in beating you down whilst enabling an easier listening experience.
In conclusion, Grave Hex are a band who relish in the dirtier side of death metal yet they haven’t focused so completely on that grimier side of things that they ignored their responsibility to craft a quality listening experience. Vermian Death is alive, spewing molasses and detritus but it’s not so coarse that it becomes a detriment to those willing to undertake its primordial chimes. It surrounds you, enveloping, yet its miasmic quality doesn’t render the album with such a thick environment that you can’t still see your own feet or where you’re being taken. Had it been more crushing I think some of its quality would be detracted, for a production such as that would hamper the bass’ capacity to evoke that shredding texture Vermian Death champions. I think there’s more to come from Grave Hex and I’d certainly like to receive more, for whilst Vermian Death is a great start I believe the band’s breakthrough work is yet to come.
