(By Brian Halsey, Staff Writer, RiffRelevant.com)
Why would a random author / metal bro get into freelance music reviewing when in his thirties? It’s not for the reasons you’d expect, like the excessive wealth and fame that instantly come with the title. It’s to find out about bands like GRAVEHUFFER before all your metal head friends do.
The band’s début album, ‘Your Fault’ – I assume it’s a début, I got so drunk while listening to it, I didn’t even care to search their origin. (*Sober edit, this is their second full-length album, with an EP released in between the two.) – is a punk rock, heavy metal, grunge soaked masterpiece.
I’m gonna be honest, before I get into the fine details, this is one of the best-best bands I’ve never heard of. Gravehuffer offers a straightforward, hard charging brand of aggressive rock n roll inspired heavy metal. ‘Your Fault’ is all mondo guitars and big drums. Released in February of this year, the gents had done the recording/mix done with Iron Sights Studio by Larry Deardorff, and mastering by Garry Moore.
The most impressive part about this sonically driven album is the listener’s desire to listen to ‘Your Fault‘ again, immediately after initially listening to it. I’m serious, after I was done getting my ears blown out, I called a few dudes I knew, and I was like, “Yo! Is it just me and my incredibly unhealthy day drinking habits, or is this band really fucking shit up right now!?” Just as I suspected, I was right all along.
With likes of James Hiser on vocals, Mike Jilge on bass, drums from Larry Deardorff, and Ritchie Randall on guitars / backing vocals, Gravehuffer does not reinvent the wheel with their second release, but rather they offer a diversified attack of heavy music they are good at, and they never let up. Clocking in at just over thirty minutes, there are no long songs, or acoustic songs, or sing along choruses. Just pure ass kicking in a totally enjoyable way.
I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me, but at the end of the day, this is the type of band that is the real backbone of heavy music. It’s not about some classically trained asshole hitting all the right notes, or four-minute long guitar solos. It’s about balls.
Bands like this will always have a place in garage drinking sessions, backyard wrestling matches, trailer park fist fights, impromptu parking lot bonfires, and skate parks across the world.
If you mix the grunge of Nirvana’s ‘Bleach’ with the rock n roll metal of Valient Thorr and mid-career Every Time I Die, then add some good old-fashioned nondescript (but amazingly done) New York hardcore, and occasional Cali-thrash, you get Gravehuffer.
What the fuck else more do you want? Listen to GRAVEHUFFER!
Give it a listen and go beat the shit out of your friends or someone with a different political view. (No, don’t really do that, you psycho!)
