Rating: 9.1

Country: Spain

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Self Released

Track list:
1.   Into The Mausoleum   04:40   
2.   Ritual   03:42   
3.   One Of Them   04:23   
4.   King of The Graveyard   03:54   

Total playing time   16:39

Band Website: Graveyard

Graveyard - Into The Mausoleum

Bastard - Rhythm & Lead Guitar
Julkarn - Bass, Guitar & Vocals
SBE - Rhythm Guitar
Gusi - Drums

…Sometimes you just get a new band/album/demo/promo that simply sucks you in, leaves you smiling like the Cheshire cat and simultaneously satisfies, yet has you salivating for more, MORE and MORE!!!

Myspace is full of pitfalls and plateaus and sometimes…peaks.  At times a wonderful place to search for bands both new and old… established and up-and-coming. Thanks to Billy Nocera of Razorback fame I was pointed in the direction of Graveyard from Swed-er…Finla…no wait- SPAIN! After hearing a couple songs, I was instantly hooked and placed my desire for a promo to review right here, and only a week later I was greeted with a sharp and wondrous chill down my spine.

This is PURE FUCKING DEATH METAL done with conviction and some insidiously morbid overtones. This is just what the Doctor ordered in the sea of over hyped and over produced false Death… this is ancient unholy soul damning black magic in digital form. The production is thick and raw, yet has clarity-similar but not identical to Asphyx's Mutilating Process EP. The easiest and most generic way to explain this would be very early Unleashed, mixed in with Finnish Abhorrence and an unmistakable Spanish flavor akin to Mexican Cenotaph's debut The Gloomy Reflections of Our Hidden Sorrows. Other elements can be found also; traces of MegaSlaughter as well as early Demigod and Adramelech's Spring of Recovery EP ooze and mutate throughout the (de)compositions.

First non intro track “Into the Mausoleum” at 02:58 bleeds a haunting guitar lead against equally haunting and extremely DARK keyboards all backed by a lurching, decayed and unforgettably ominous riff and very primitive and neanderthal like drumming, brilliantly fading in a very gradual burn. This is the stuff that just sticks in your head for decades to come… “Ritual” sounds a bit more traditional Swedish in its onset, but quickly though it evolves into something different, something vaguely similar to Cenotaph's early works. Intro riff for “One of Them” bears an extreeeeemely uncanny resemblance to Unleashed's “Before the Creation of Time” (as does the vocal pattern!) but just before the first minute is up, the song quickly degenerates into something much more personal and nightmarish, perhaps reminiscent of Sadistic Intent during their Resurrection era although Graveyard are much more obscure and sinister in their mood. Final song ”King of the Graveyard” again gives us plenty of nods to the early 90's Stockholm Sweden scene, the Southern Finnish style as well as a healthy injection of Spaniard evil, I tell you-no one can create “evil” with music quite like those of Spanish origin!!!

…Graveyard has certainly perfected the ability to bring the listener down the abysmal depths where the only thing certain is the perpetual damnation upon which all negativity feeds… Recently signed to Black Seed Productions, this demo/promo will soon see its new incarnation in MCD form, so when it hits the world market officially, make sure you pick up a copy-THIS is the future of DEATH METAL!

January 11th, 2008