Koud gemaakt

Formed in 2007, Grafjammer is a five piece black metal outfit hailing from the Netherlands. The band’s debut demo, Smeerenburgh, was released in 2012, and featured four tracks of second wave worshiping black metal in the vein of Darkthrone and Carpathian Forest. It was a rather rabid and dirty affair, opting to focus on the cold black metal and filthy punk influences of the aforementioned bands. The band’s debut full length, Koud gemaakt, digitally released by the band in April of 2015, continues the same second wave histrionics as the demo, but the sound is more mature and nuanced than before.

With Koud gemaakt, the band corrected a lot of the issues I had with the demo. While this is still a relatively short affair, barely breaking the twenty minute mark, there’s a lot of variety over the eight tracks. Tracks like “Dulle Greit” show a solid melding of blasting percussion and chunky riffing, with some minor key melodies tailing the licks, while “Kerkhof Batavia” brings a clash of catchy, thrashing riffs and rollicking, palm muted walls of thick riffing. Not forgetting the really punk fueled style of their demo, the riffing “De voeten gespoeld” brings a frenetic surge of rangy power chords and double kick drums. The constant variation between high speeds and a more nuanced, second wave style of black metal keeps things interesting.

Overall, Grafjammer still brings the likes of Carpathian Forest, Darkthone and Horned Almighty to mind. The vocals are mostly angry, snarled growls, which is a fitting vocal style given the frequent bursts of punk influence. Yet despite this, the band’s sound manages to stay true to second wave black metal. There’s a cold and sinister feel to the music, which is exemplified on “(Te oud, te koud) Haat in de strot”, which is loosely based on Darkthrone’s “Too Old, Too Cold” and Carpathian Forest’s “He’s Turning Blue”. Koud gemaakt is certainly a step up from the band’s demo and fans of the style really can’t go wrong here. It’s not the most imaginative sound in the world but the riffs are solid and the music hits pretty hard.

Written for The Metal Observer.