Grimville

How ‘bout a nice afternoon cupatea, a biscuit, and some underground death metal? What we have here is the first demo by Grimville and allow me to first of all congratulate these Belgians on the excellent choice of bandname. Stumbling upon the band by sheer accident, the name is the number one reason (out of a total of: 1) that triggered my interest. Grimville. Grrrrrrimmmmville. Sounds cool, doesn’t it? There’s more of a black metal ring to it, though in reality this five-piece plays classic nineties-styled death metal.

Basically, Grimville sound like a Bolt Thrower tribute band. I mean, the BT-worship is omnipresent on this two-track demo, even the growls are a pretty neat imitation of Karl Willetts fame. If I’m correct, their current singer isn’t the guy who performed on this demo so only time will tell if the vocals sound differently on any future release.

I like the intro to the first track ‘Possessed by Darkness’ and that’s a decent start. However, my interest is waning as the song continues. It’s mostly very generic thirteen-in-a-dozen old skool death metal with very few stand-out moments. The solo has a bluesy feel to it and sounds rather unfitting in combination with the bulky guitars. I think this is a mere production flaw because on the second track they got it right, with a sharper sound and a better lead overall that has a positive impact on the song’s quality.

Strangely enough the second track hasn’t got the same sound level as the first one, so it seems both tracks were recorded on different moments. ‘Lust Driven Lobotomy’ is overall a better track, with an interesting tremolo riff that is probably the best one on the demo.

Judging purely from this demo, it is unlikely that Grimville will ever make it out of the underground. There are a few parts where the band shows some potential, but you’d easily miss them as overall the songs are comprised of very generic standard death metal. I could live with that if at least the tracks had a better structure and flow, and weren't the mish-mash of ideas and riffs that they are now, up to the point where they feel like loose sand, as if every band member had their say over a specific part but there is no coherent story. In the end, that seems to be Grimville’s biggest challenge for the future: to structure the songs in such a way that the band presents itself as a unity.

If you’re a Bolt Thrower fanatic, then Grimville might appeal to you, but don’t expect anything in the Innovation Department. I probably won’t return to this demo. The tea and biscuit were fine though.