Review by Daniel for Nocturnal Graves - An Outlaw's Stand (2022)

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??