GRAVE FORSAKEN – This Day Forth

Based on their name, Grave Forsaken turned out to be something different than any expectation. The expectation might be to hear a Death / Thrash Metal band in the veins of Mortification or something close to that. However, the discovered reality turns out to be not bad at all. The Aussie Grave Forsaken is a Thrash Metal band with Death Metal hints that are mostly deeply rooted on some of their vocal sections and several of their riffs. The band’s main topics are social matters and Christianity (are they a God fearing group?). Grave Forsaken have been a part of the Metal scene since 2004 and surprisingly after five years they came up with their third album, This Day Forth, which labels them as a hard working group. The album was released four months ago under the band’s new label, Soundmass Records. This type of step can be recognized as a positive turn in the band’s career. However, only time will tell.

The saddest thing regarding the band, without any connection to the album, is the fact that the band’s great vocalist, Tim Steadman, left the crew after the album’s release. Steadman served with the band for quite some time and was replaced by the band’s guitarist Vaughn Gregory who chose to leave his guitar post and take on the vocals while the band recruited another guitarist to fill the vacant position. Tim Steadman was the Aussie mixture of Sodom’s Angelripper, M.O.D’s funny character Danny Milano and the deathly Carcass’s leading man, Jeff Walker. This mixture indicates that this guy had what it takes to make the band’s tracks interesting and appealing.

As for the album itself, the production focuses mostly on the more modern sound with good enough quality, nevertheless, the music by Grave Forsaken is almost the opposite, its direction tends to follow the Old School code. Of course, the word “almost” is important because Grave Forsaken has other influences that directly come from Heavy Metal and Heavy Rock, especially while noticing the solo sections and some of the drum passages.

When it comes to songwriting, the band did a nice job on creating preaching like songs full of social and Christian affiliations. Nonetheless, the music could have been better. All the songs on This Day Forth have top of the line peaks, yet a number of them seem to lose their coherence and that is why they get stuck behind. The only result is a future loss of interest. For example, the track, “Death Undone”, has amazing moments of beautiful solos of cranking Heavy Metal and its riffs are not bad at all, yet before and after the solos there are sections that create a weird feeling like there is no where to go and it starts to develop into a longing for the endeavor to end. On the other hand, Grave Forsaken presents kicking tracks like the social religious “Holy Blood” and “Mother Of Harlots” which are absolute moshpit material. “Holy Blood” has that fast Doom-like section where the growl of Steadman dominates with conviction (a well-deserved Carcass influence).

Highlights: “No News… Ain’t Good News” – The preaching starts with a mid paced groovy like tune shared with Hard Rockin solos performed with immense ability. “Mother Of Harlots”, “This Day Forth” – A total Christian preaching lesson all around, great riffs on this groovy killer. “Celebrity Judge And The Sinners Part III” – If you don’t know the first two parts, its not that bad, the song itself is M.O.D-like with Thrashier elements. Last remaining is “Holy Blood”.