June 2023 - Feature Release - The Pit Edition

Another month flies by, which means it's time to select a new feature release for The Pit. As it's my turn to choose, I've selected Nocturnal Graves' An Outlaw's Stand. Before you check it out, note that the album is as much a black metal release as it is thrash metal, but hey, if we never featured any albums that don't fit neatly into a single clan, we'd be missing out on a whole heap of interesting stuff. This isn't a big release for me, but I do think it's a lot better than the extremely harsh ratings it's received on RYM (currently 3.10 after nearly 200 ratings). It will certainly give you a kick in the ass at the very least.

It would be great to read what you all think of it either below or in review format.

https://metal.academy/releases/33487

Here's my review:

I’ve been following Australian extreme metallers Nocturnal Graves for some time now, particularly since seeing them play live in support of Mayhem & Watain back in 2014 where they thoroughly impressed me. The Aussie scene is known for producing bands that tip toe along the borders of all three of the major extreme metal genres (i.e. death metal, black metal & thrash metal) with the state of Victoria arguably being the epicentre for that sound. Many of the bands from that region tend to share members & it’s not hard to connect all of them together if you put your mind to it so Nocturnal Graves stem from a long line of seminal artists & possess an imposing pedigree of their own. You can easily hear that in their sound too as they clearly know what it is that made the legendary bands of our youths so great.

Nocturnal Graves is really the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Jarro Raphael who handles the vocals, rhythm guitars, bass & drums on “An Outllaw’s Stand”, the band’s fourth & latest full-length album. Jarro cut his teeth drumming in a couple of other prominent Aussie extreme metal bands in Destroyer 666 & Destruktor before heading off on his own. He’s joined here by a couple of talented lead guitarists in Denouncement Pyre main man Decaylust & current Razor of Occam & former Destroyer 666 & Adorior axeman Shrapnel who I had the pleasure of partying with back in 1996 when he was still one of K.K. Warslut’s sidekicks. The three of them make for an imposing trio & have produced one seriously underrated & high quality record here.

Nocturnal Graves are generally tagged as blackened death/thrash & you can easily see why upon first listen to “An Outlaw’s Stand” however I’d argue that the links to thrash are misguided on this occasion which makes the album an uncomfortable fit as a feature release for The Pit. There are certainly some thrash influences here & there but this is much more of a blackened death metal record in my opinion with the two primary genres sharing the spotlight in roughly equal measure. Perhaps the links to thrash come from the similarities in approach to Sweden’s Witchery & fellow Aussie bands like Destroyer 666 & Vomitor whose blackened sounds are more heavily infiltrated by classic thrash but personally I’d suggest that there’s a lot more Sadistic Intent & particularly early Morbid Angel in Nocturnal Graves sound than there is the thrash metal of Slayer. At times they even hint at the war metal of Bestial Warlust which can’t be a bad thing now, can it?

On paper this sort of stuff should really appeal to someone like myself & I’m very pleased to advise that “An Outlaw’s Stand” delivers on it’s promise with a metal-at-all-costs onslaught of darkness & chaos. There are blast-beats aplenty to accompany some seriously evil blackened vocals & a plethora of Trey Azagthoth-inspired lead guitar work that steals the show from the band leader on this occasion. You’ll do well to find a record that’s more inherently metal than this one as it ticks all of the boxes. Unfortunately it’s perhaps not quite sophisticated enough to be competing with the top tier though, despite having created a mighty maelstrom of an atmosphere. I think Raphael sometimes keeps the beats fairly simplistic in the interest of underground credibility & the results are a little mixed without ever losing momentum. The lead guitar tone seems to have been consciously aimed at replicating that classic Morbid Angel sound with ample use of wah pedals having been employed in the interest of bringing some additional tension & fire to the game. I have to say that it’s worked marvelously well too.

“An Outlaw’s Stand” is an undeniably underground record for those who remember what the scene was like in the late 1980’s & early 1990’s. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, instead electing to borrow their components from the true greats & presenting them in their own way. It works unanimously well too although I have to question the programming of the tracklisting given that the two best tracks on the album are left right to the end. It certainly leaves me wanting more but wouldn’t it have been a better option to place one at the start in order to give the record an added push right from the offset? I would have thought so. Still… it defies all logic that RYM currently has this release sitting at an average of 3.1/5 after almost 200 ratings. Are we listening to the same record??

4/5

Whilst Nocturnal Graves brand of blackened death metal is most certainly something I enjoy, I have never managed to garner that much excitement from any of the bands releases to date. I have no issue with things sounding generic to some extent but if you stuck me a playlist on of Nocturnal Graves I would not be able to tell you which album the song came from. Similarly here, many of the tracks on An Outlaw's Stand might as well be left overs from the Titan album, such is the lack of any real deviation from the output on that record.

Now, this is not to say that Nocturnal Graves lack quality or talent. They have both in droves. Those Morbid Angel references are obvious and well executed. Whether it the guitar or vocal work that cites the heyday of the death metal legends, both are done with exceptional ability, even if those drums are not attempting to match Sandoval-era blasting. If I was awarding points for attitude then Nocturnal Graves would be in my high scores all day long with this record. There is an assuredness to the tracks here that does not waiver once, and when you are doing death metal this well you have no need to have any doubts. Even if I do not find the record all that versatile, I cannot argue with the stoic intent that sits behind the music.

That withstanding, I cannot commit any high scores to An Outlaw's Stand based on the resoluteness of its delivery alone. On balance, although well performed, it is a completely forgettable experience nonetheless. When it is on, I am enjoying it but had it not been a feature release this month to secure my attention for reviewing purposes then I would not have come back to it beyond one full listen through.

3/5

To get it our of the way first, I'm a bit surprised this is a Pit feature as I don't really hear any thrash metal here. It sounds much more like blackened death metal to me, although I have been wrong before! That aside, this is a damn good record that displays plenty of deathly musculature in it's riffing with a blackened patina that gives it a nice evil atmosphere. Nocturnal Graves are powered by main man, Jarro Raphael (aka Nuclear Exterminator) who takes on the role of lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, bassist, drummer and, presumably, also major songwriter. He is ably aided by a couple of lead guitarists in Denouncement Pyre's Paul Lang (aka Decaylust) and ex-Deströyer 666 guitarist Shrapnel.

There is no attempt to sugar-coat this deathly black attack - this is an all-out, aggressively relentless and spiteful-sounding assault on your brain. The riffs are fast and furious and, whilst not treading any new territory, are cool as fuck and hit the spot just right for anyone who loves evil-sounding extreme metal. Jarro Raphael is an impressive metal maniac - his one-man rhythm section is brutally functional and whilst he doesn't really go in for any fancy shenanigans, he is not short of ability in these departments and his performance here powers the whole endeavour and underpins the guitar work with an impetus that is as solid as it is breakneck.

The dual leads realise some tasty solos, quite often referring to heavy metal tropes as much as death or thrash metal ones and their contributions certainly help to elevate An Outlaw's Stand from out of the pack. If you enjoy guitar solos then you won't go away from this disappointed as there seem to be more than you would normally expect from a death or black metal album and these may well be the source of many people claiming this as a thrash album, although I maintain the meat of the album, ie the riffs, is firmly rooted in black/death metal. JR's vocals sound suitably spiteful and evil as he spits or vomits the lyrics out at the listener and is the most black metal aspect of the album, capturing the essential misanthropy at the heart of all the best black metal. All-in-all this is an album that is worth your time if you love straight-up, fuck everything black or death metal as it exhibits a vitality and lack of pretentiousness that encapsulates exceedingly well why I love extreme metal.

4/5

This is the 2nd blackened thrash album featured this year that was released last year (Autonoesis being the other) and to be honest, I was impressed by this. It took quite a few listens before I could finally “get” it, but once I did, I found myself returning to this record a lot more than anyone might have expected.

I think what makes this record stand out is its motivic development. Well, perhaps that’s an overstatement, but these tracks are connected beautifully with strong ideas that are repeated enough to remind the listener how they got to this destination. Now that could be the guitar riffing, a specific percussion motif, or vocal inflection; I never felt like I was getting lost in the music that I was hearing. It also helped how the thrash/black metal passages are not interwoven together, rather they are kept separated, allowing for Nocturnal Graves to follow that songwriting high I spoke of earlier without having to do very much to the compositions at all!

Sparse guitar solos and a dramatic slow down of pace on “No Mercy for Weakness” hit me like a brick when they appeared and created a real sense of tension and release. My two biggest issues however are that while the compositions are robust on their own, they start to lose grandeur when every track uses the same formula. In addition, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the death metal instrumental interludes that connect vocal motifs to one another. I would have expected more traditional thrash riffage in those sections and especially something with a little bit more melody, instead of the low string tremolo that we got. But overall, this was not bad. A nice brisk runtime with some solid ideas makes for a more than refreshing take on blackened thrash.

3.5/5