Unconsecrated is a Spanish Death Metal act that formed back in 2006. Since then the band has issued two demos, but these demos wound up coming together to form their debut full-length effort Unconsecrated Cemetery/Dark Awakening back in 2008. Nearly three yearw since that album was released, he band has gone back in the studio to record a follow-up release, a seven inch vinyl EP entitled Slave to the Grave, which is composed of four tracks of solid Death Metal that has some Swedish Death Metal influence to it.
The EP consists of three actual songs, and an outro track entitled "Breath of Desolation", leading to a little under thirteen minutes of Death Metal. In the long run, this seems more like a tease from the band, especially after one listen through this effort. The inspirations are clear in the music, but there's no denying the talent that the group possesses to create a remarkably brutal effort with fantastic, addicting results. The music on each song is intense, as well as feeds nicely off the slighlty raw quality, not just from being on a vinyl, but also in the production itself, giving the songs a haunting atmosphere to them that ghoes well with the heavily distorted guitars that sound simply crushing, and the commanding gutterals that just sound perfect, matching nicely against the deeper guitars. Of course, there is some lighter pitched guitar work on this album, but mostly during the guitar solo to the title track "Slave to the Grave", which kicks in during a slower moment of the song, adding an echo to the music itself that creates a musical setting of an isolated cemetery.
Of course, while the guitars basically go nonstop from the start of the song until the very end, it's the drumming here that really helps the album out. The drumming lines up perfectly with the relentless guitars, but at the same time doesn't just continue on a specific path, as once in a while it may change things up by speeding up, or even stopping for a moment, as if the guitars were to, but they don't, leaving the drums to act as a whole other entity entirely, which is great thanks to the terrific production job done with them. Each snare sound the way it should, having a great kick to them, the cymbols crash loudly, but don't overpower the entire kit, even the bass kicks have that click to them that just works so well in the Metal world. The appreciation for these starts right on the first track, "Buried in the Crypt", which is a crushing song to begin with, never stopping, just continuing on with it's assault on your spirit, but it's the nicely leveled snare and bass kick combination that many bands try to do, but sounds horrible through raw quality that many underground afficianados love.
The outro track, "Breath of Desolation", takes much of the haunting echo effects utilized on the instruments, and places them on acoustic guitars. The odd thing about this song is that, instead of a isolated, crushing feeling, they reflect their heritage nicely, but at the same time feel more uplifting then anything, only really getting back to the overall atmosphere of the song near the end where the performance starts to sound like something one would hear from a well done eighties Slasher film during the opening credits, fading out as it would to end the credits and introduce the main character or characters of the movie. Because of that feeling at the end, it actually makes this track work more like an introduction then anything, and if you listen to it before "Buried in the Crypt", you will find how well it truly works to set up the main characters, i.e. the tracks, of the album.
It's sad to see that many of these fantastic bands in the Metal scene are releasing small quantities of releases. Slave to the Grind would make a fantastic release, and definitely cause alot of Death Metal fans to anxiously await the next release. Of course, with the atmosphere the band is working on, vinyl makes the perfect since this release, as it winds up creating a nice amount of ambience for the release in the long run. Either way, Slave to the Grave is a fantastic piece of Death Metal, and it's just a matter of time before this band comes up from the underground scene, whether they walk out themselves, or the fan base grows due to the talent this act will drag them out personally.
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