Gravewürm / Nunslaughter

Another tasty slab of ancient death metal! Nunslaughter join forces this time with Gravewurm, for a deluxe Halloween themed 7 inch. The packaging really is quite impressive, with the disk being housed within a foldout coffin case which slides out of the bottom of the jacket. The disk itself looks awsome; A clear orange vinyl with black splattered all over it. Enough about the art though, and on to the music at hand.

Gravewurm's side is up first, with their original "Cult of the Dying God." I honestly wasn't too impressed with this band at first listen, but they have grown on me a little bit. The music is ultra simple fairly midpaced, old school death metal, although there are touches of doom and some blackness in there as well. The riffs and tempos are somewhat bouncy, and remind me somewhat of Absurd. Because of the simplicity it's easy for some of these riffs to seem punkish at times, especially with the accompanying drumming style. I think the weakest part of this band is the vocals, which sound like a sort of whispered coughing. Their cover of Nunslaughter's "Killed By the Cross" is decent, but again the vocals are nowhere near as sick as Don's, and the drumming is kinda sloppy during the blasts.

Nunslaughter's side begins with their cover of Gravewurm's "On the Icy Plains I Die," which is pretty decent. The style again is similar the the other Gravewurm song on the disk, but I honestly feel like Nunslaughter pull of GW's style better, mostly because of the better vocals and drumming. The disk closes the Nunslaughter's original, "The Red Ram." This is probably one of the best songs these guys have ever written, and it is certianly my favorite from them. This song opens fast in their usual style, with fast riffs and drums. Don's vox sound particularly good on this song, maybe it's just me but I feel his tone is a little different than usual, and he almost sounds younger. Halfway through the song, they unleash on of their best riffs ever. It's actually (gasp!) melodic? Well not overly, but definetly for these guys. Maybe it's the new guitarist. The songs ends with some super high shrieking of the title, coutesy of Sadist.

This is certainly a pretty fun record to listen to, but the real Gem is "The Red Ram." Any Nunslughter fan should hear this song. A Good split overall, but I feel that Nunslaughter just blows Gravewurm away, not that they're bad, but they can't match Nunslaughter's energy.