Pure Negativity

Finnish black metal has a tendency to revel in very underground spirit when it comes to sound quality and execution of instruments, but recent years have provided a plentiful of bands that are one level higher on technicality, tightness and overall modernity. Graveborne's debut album Pure Negativity is among those albums that, instead of an utterly raw sound and primitive attitude, prefers to keep things rather clean.

Not that there's a lack of aggressiveness: it doesn't take more than the first track ”Metamorphosis” to kick in when you realize that you're in for a swift ride of Dark Funeral and Marduk esque blast beats and tremolo fires. Soon after I'm also sensing a presence of Keep of Kalessin, just a less melodic version of it. The second track ”Nocturnal” belongs to my favourities of the bunch as it includes some subtle melancholy in one of the main riffs, though I'm not yet sure what to think of the track's outro section, that chugging rhythm kind of takes me back to bands like Chimaira...

As easily happens with albums of this style, at least in my opinion, stagnation starts to plague the album the closer you get towards its end. Starting from around the middle of the album, I'm no longer able to differentiate the tracks properly, no matter that I've given them a fair amount of spins before writing a word. Good riffs appear every now and then of course – for example on ”Aokigahara” there's that fantastic, epic one (how much can a band actually sound like Alghazanth?) and I can't deny the power of acoustic guitars on ”Dark Matter” - but there's nothing majorly impressive that would hold my grip firmly on the album.

For a debut effort, Pure Negativity is incredibly played as well as produced, as the whole package reeks of professionalism. Definitely a well done album that just, to my ears, sounds a bit too familiar and safe to evoke any big feelings. Put it in the background and I'll never find the album harassing, but for repeated, focused listenings? Nah, I'd slowly grow tired of it. Bonus points, however, for the lyrics that are certainly worth a read, and cover art that deserves more than just a fast glance.

3 / 5
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