Review: Nocturnal Graves ”Titan”

Nocturnal Graves- ”Titan” (Season Of Mist records)

The heavy metal scene is huge and expansive. It therefore makes sense that not everyone has heard of every band out there. No problem, there’s fun in finding new music that suits our tastes.  For those of you not in the know, Nocturnal Graves are a Blackened Thrash band from Melbourne- Australia. May 2018 saw the release of their third full length release Titan onSeason of Mist Underground Activists. Bandcamp has you covered if you’d like to indulge in a multitude of Titan offerings , marble vinyl anyone?

I’ve been listening to this 8 track, 39 minute slab of darkness for a couple of months now.  Titan is superbly written and produced, a huge step forwards in comparison to their work a decade ago.  The 2007 release Satan’s Cross for instance, sounded like a tribute to 1980’s low budget recording methods.

Shrapnel’s and Decaylust’s guitar tones are beautifully heavy and simply put, straight out of the Trey Azagthoth handbook , but who better to worship that Morbid Angel?  Bow to them faithfully, after all… The song writing is straight up DM, exceedingly heavy, memorable and mid paced in the main. A head banging, mosh inducing style that I truly love and appreciate. The lead work is worth a mention too as it’s obviously crazily talented work and reminiscent of the first Entombed album (that’s a very good thing). Drum work is performed by J.R with the solid precision that DM deserves and R. Prain handles the bass guitar and vocals in a very faithful manner.

Artwork for the Titan album is a suitably impressive monotone line work. A Titan rising from the deep as men cower in fear. A great match by the artist.

Bonus: Their latest release has just landed too , Inward Graves. It looks like these busy Australian lads are preparing for a busy schedule and my educated guess is they’ll be playing the new Titan and Inward Graves tracks when they go live with Primordial at the Black Conjuration Fest!