Grave Maker - Ghosts Among Men
Rating
RIYL
Cruel HandSoldiers
Ice Age
This Is Hell
Release Date
06/22/2010
Label
Victory RecordsTracklist
1. Ghosts Among Men2. Hell Followed
3. Melt To The Mold
4. Seducer
5. Why We Fight
6. Stronghold
7. Vlad The Impaler
8. Laid To Rest
9. Dead Or Alive
10. Sever Thy Head
11. Broken Bones
12. Never Be Like You
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At face value Grave Maker’s sophomore full-length, and debut for Victory Records, should be another generic tough-guy hardcore clunker; lyrically the record sticks firmly to two fixations of the genre: some sort of inner struggle and reactionary platitudes, along the lines of the “fuck you” sort mostly (“All you are is just another push-over, just doing what the fuck you’re told.” “This is forever, it’s you against me.”). Add to this the trite album art and it would seem that Ghosts Among Men should be painfully hackneyed and cause for endless déjà vu. But similar to bands like Terror, Grave Maker becomes greater than the sum of their parts not on the strength of originality but by nailing the straight hardcore template to a T and making their passion for the music readily apparent.
Ghosts Among Men is indubitably a significant improvement over Grave Maker’s solid but relatively unremarkable debut Bury Me At Sea, though it’s not like they’ve re-invented themselves. They’ve essentially expanded on the strong points of their first disc to now span an entire album. Those following the band saw this coming with the release of last year’s 7” Home Is Where The Heartache Is foreshadowing a break-out long-player with all of the filler from the first record replaced by crisp and concise songwriting and some beefed-up guitar work. Two songs from that 7”, “Vlad The Impaler” and “Sever Thy Head,” are included here with minimal change.
The moral of the story is that maturation is a wonderful thing. I never would have guessed when Bury Me At Sea dropped that Grave Maker would have made the quantum leap shown over the last year. As the first note of this album rings out on the title track and the feedback whines and the cymbals crash before the thick bass line kicks in, there’s a sense of anticipation, rarely found outside of a live setting, basically demanded of you. The track is an absolutely gigantic mid-paced beat-down that sets the table for the militant “Hell Followed” and, indeed, the contents of the rest of the disc. There really aren’t any diversions to be had; Grave Maker keeps things lean, tight, and focused. It all seems so natural now, and it’s a hat these Canadians wear well. Hardcore fans eat your hearts out.
--Jake Oliver
Comments
Illinois
i fully agree with you. this album is great. i started listening to it (not even a huge fan of tough hardcore), and i was hooked. check this out if you haven't.
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Alabama
I was a pretty big fan of "Bury Me At Sea" and I am loving this album even more! These guys are also sick live. I saw them for the second time last night with Terror and they blew me away. I also love this quote, "We have a new album out, you can buy it or if you don't have money to do that, steal that shit and give it to everyone!" Legit dudes.
Alabama
I will say though, that album art is...umm...interesting...
Minnesota
Sorry Jake, but I don't think this is much more than an average 3/5 hardcore album. It didn't do much to stand out for me.
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