Graves Of Valor – Salarian Gate
South Carolinians GRAVES OF VALOR give a good debut with Salarian Gate, and a good entrance into the modern extreme metal scene. These cats have been around for a bit, some being ex Through The Eyes Of The Dead members, and they do seem pretty experienced in mastering a forceful sound. Although the Through The Eyes Of The Dead sound is evident in many ways, GRAVES OF VALOR still does it well.
Salarian Gate opens up with the title track, where the twin guitar attacks unleash dark melody, and tones of modern extremity. The title track is a solid album opener, and GRAVES OF VALOR prepares you for the rest of their attack. The CD moves on with some typical chug patterns in “Bridles Of Incitatus”, but that is not to say they don’t add some good punch into them, because they do. Overall, the band takes traditional death metal and mixes it together with modern deathcore, and they combine the two pretty well. There’s plenty of monster riffs and trigger crazy drumming in “Pestilence” and a pretty good guitar solo finds itself in the mix, too. Songs such as “The Clever Ape” show the tempo at max, with some good tremolo picking, slick melody, and brutal breaks. “The Clever Ape” really shows their solid guitar teamwork well, and a solid musical direction.
Salarian Gate closes with the song, “No Gods Left”, and gives an eerie approach in the intro, and the song continues to build up whether the mighty roars of vocalist Damon Welch, or some mean distortion from the guitar team. “No Gods Left” is set at a one stomp tempo, but indeed shows another side of GRAVES OF VALOR.
GRAVES OF VALOR shows promise, and with a debut like this, I’m stoked to see this band grow. I mean, they definitely have that marketable sound that the kids are eating up these days. Check them out now, for they’ve taken an already crafted sound and polished that fucker up!
Rating: 7.5/10
Label: Relapse Records
Website: http://www.myspace.com/FROMGRAVESTOVALOR
By Alex Gilbert
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