Nocturnal Blood – Devastated Graves - The Morbid Celebration (2010)

When it comes to having a raw and crushing sound, only a few bands can be as effective as Nocturnal Blood. Unluckily, Nocturnal Blood also lacks depth and enough variation in their music to be 100% effective. That being said, we don’t think that “Devastated Graves - The Morbid Celebration” is a bad album since it’s crushing and relentless, but we will not say it’s amazing either, since it lacks depth and variety and feels like a 26 minute long song.

Having only one member, Ghastly Apparition, the ‘band’ quickly takes command with a very raw sounding assault of guitar riffs, slurred growls and relentless drumming. With “Devastated Graves”, you will surely be brought to your knees due to the fact of the massive rawness and brutality behind this song. However, once tracks like “Death Calls”, “Impure Devotion” and “Ghouls Wrath” go by, you soon realized that Nocturnal Blood is a one-trick pony.

We have to agree that the riffing is somewhat interesting through the release, but with the thick distortion it sounds very similar for 26 minutes. The vocals are crushing, but again, a bit linear and tend to get predictable. As far as the drumming we are concerned, it is very basic and well mixed allowing it to sound very relentless and effective enough to keep things going.

In general “Devastated Graves - The Morbid Celebration” is a very crushing release if you don’t expect anything more than a raw aural assault of very similar sounding songs for over 26 minutes. The ‘band’ creates a thick and very brutal atmosphere and it deserves props for that. However, if you are expecting something a bit more dynamic and varied, then go and look for something else. If you are a fan of some of the older Bathory releases, then you should definitely check this one out.

Release: October 15, 2010

Country: USA