Engraved In Black

By many Graveworm are considered as just another clone of such bands as Cradle Of Filth or Dimmu Borgir. Even though I may have partially agreed with that comment at one time, I no longer share this opinion. To put it straight, I could say that Graveworm are my second favourite Italian band after Lacuna Coil, but since they do not play the same kind of music, I will say that they are my favourite Italian band of equal merit as the Coilers. Everytime I hear about Graveworm releasing a new album, I always wonder which Luis Royo's artwork they are going to chose for their cover art. Alas for me the band switched to Nuclear Blast after their latest album and it's probably why they haven't chosen another Luis Royo's artwork this time, but rather a replicate of Nuclear Blast's Death Is Only The Beginning kind of cover. Nice cover though. Graveworm made themselves famous in the underground releasing above average death n' black metal albums. Their two latest releases As The Angels Reach The Beauty and Scourge Of Malice being great albums, but they somehow failed to reach the higher level, the upper level that certifies a band has made it to the mainstream metal audience such as Cradle Of Borgir or Dimmu Of Filth. Now the band returns with their new album album Engraved In Black, their fourth full lenght so far, and without any doubt, their strongest so far. In fact, their new stuff outdoes everything they have released so far and stands out as being their masterpiece, at last ! The music still has this typical Graveworm touch, the music remaining loud and heavy as hell, with little changes in tempo. The band has refined their style on this new album as well. The style they had already developed on their previous two releases Scourge Of Malice and As The Angels Reach The Beauty. Every song on Engraved In Black is quite unbelievable, from the opening track Dreaming Into Reality to the amazingly great instrumental Thorns Of Desolation and the cover of Pet Shop Boys' It's A Sin, the superhit from the eighties. It's not the first time the band has done such an amazing cover track. On their latest release they covered Iron Maiden's finest song ever (to me) Fear Of The Dark which was after all quite a decent choice, but a rather typical one for a black metal band. Their version of It's A Sin exceeded all my expectations The Pet Shop Boys' cover should help everyone unaware of this talented band make up their mind to get this true masterpiece. As for me, it is definitely among my top three album of the year.