Grave Pleasures is an Apocalyptic Post-Punk band from Finland, previously known as Beastmilk. My exposure to post-punk has been very limited so this was a completely new experience. Their new record called ‘Motherblood’ is a collection of catchy songs that have the potential to cement themselves in your musical collection as a prominent entry.
The first track “Infatuation Overkill” has a pretty energetic approach and works well as an opening track. Although I must say, I wasn’t very happy with the video that they shot for it. “Doomsday Rainbows” features a very sing-along chorus, but stays a bit flat for the remainder of its tenure. “Be My Hiroshima” borrows a lot of musical ideas from the goth-rock movement that HIM has perfected over the years. While the melodies are interesting, it still follows the same structure as the previous song.
[metalwani_content_ad]“Joy Through Death” and “Mind Intruder” are two tracks that build very well on the idea of sound layering, and use delays and reverbs very well to make highly enjoyable tracks. The lyrical ideas are quite thought-provoking and expect the listener to step outside their comfort zone. The songs feel more like indie-rock than post punk, but I’m not going to ponder over genre semantics. Mat “Kvohst” McNerney does an amazing job on the vocals while guitarists Aleksi Kiiskilä and Juho Vanhanen do justice to the multilayered guitar licks.
“Failing For An Atom Bomb” is the closest cousin to what the Arctic Monkeys sounded like on their sophomore record, and seems like a nod to “Old Yellow Bricks” off that album. This song also happens to be my favourite off this album; you can definitely dance to this one. “Atomic Christ” has a cool opening spoken word monologue, which is a good change of pace.
“Laughing Abyss” and “Deadenders” are strong tracks, but don’t stand out as much as the others do. They have a mean sound to them, but the structures are almost same, most of the time. Massive shout-out to bassist Valtteri Arino for keeping that bass tone growling and monstrous, though!
Regrettably the last song called “Haunted Afterlife” sounds the same as some of the songs on the record and I feel they could’ve picked a different song to close the album off. It is a very well-produced album; there is no question about that. The musicianship is very noticeable and there are sections on this album that are ridiculously tasty, especially the heavy parts on “Haunted Afterlife”. The more you listen to this, the more it grows on you. I am very, very satisfied with what I’ve heard.