Thy Grave: Anhedonia

Having recently encountered Russia’s Thy Grave on a three way split from 2014, we now discover the sludge outfit’s seemingly one and only album, Anhedonia, which was released the year before. Sporting a mixture of covers - “No Teeth� by Terminator 2 and “Liha� by Loinen - and originals that are usually in the area of ten minute plus, the approach would seem to be that of grim determination.

Highlighting the tortured vocals of Rot, the opening track shares its name with the band and offers little, if any, chinks of light in what is a grinding swirl of riffs and smacked cymbals. Heady stuff and quite atmospheric, and at volume really rather impactful. The two-minute shuffle of “Haudan�, featuring vocals from Loinen frontman Primus, offers a clever relief from the gloom, before the turgid howl of “Abomination� smacks home with a deep hidden groove that proves this album’s highlight. The Terminator 2 cover feels a little more perfunctory, while hardly letting the side down, or taking its foot off your throat, while the Loinen reworking of “Liha� leaves you feeling like you’ve been lying underneath a six foot long spike as it is ever so slowly rotated into your skull. Nice, if you like that sort of thing… Leaving the album’s title track to explode in more blackened surrounds and deposit a rather nasty taste in the mouth once it has.

Some six years down the line you are definitely left with a feeling of what might have been about Thy Grave. Their one and to date only album doesn’t quite shake the earth and yet you can’t quite get rid of the feeling that what might have followed very much could have.

Track Listing
1. Thy Grave
2. Haudan
3. Abomination
4. No Teeth
5. Liha
6. Anhedonia

Added: March 29th 2019
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Thy Grave @ bandcamp
Hits: 690
Language: english

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