It seems more and more as of late bands are taking the lead of the mighty Darkthrone. That is to mean that much like Darkthrone as of late bands are adding more obvious touches of crust punk to their black metal style. Hot Graves are not that new at this though. This 4 year old band have always made it pretty clear that they love old school black metal, satan, crust and hardcore. It can be gleaned from just looking at their logo, 4 hot pink stylized coffins positioned like the classic Black Flag bars with upside crosses and other fun things put on them.
Crust and old school black metal share certain musical markers that are hard to ignore. So it makes sense that these two styles would fit together like a nicely made peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The problem lies in the fact that some bands add too much of this or too little of that to try to make their own sound and manage to completely miss the point.
Hot graves can hardly be accused of missing the point. The band most certainly plays their cards close to their chest. The tempos rarely slow down if only to emphasize the upcoming part and the vocals consist of a hellish bellowing that sound like a demon gargling materials found in a dumpster. These features certainly don't hurt the band as the vocals sound both crusty and evil and are accentuated by the music itself which matches the vocals for grit.
The songs really pop as the distorted bass tones add a level of dirt to the songs meanwhile the guitars are given ample opportunity to add tasteful solos to the songs that never last too long or sound over the top. The main gripe with the record lies in the production. While i can respect the band for not going with too clean of a sound the choice to go for a slightly more grim, or lo-fi sound also hurts them at some points. The main issue being is that, at times, the cymbals feel too high in mix therefore taking away from the rest of the song.
When it's all said and done Hot Graves have written a record that is both immediate and grim. Their sound manages to encapsulate the classics in both genres while still being it's own. Regardless one can't help to feel that if given a slightly cleaner recording or even a stronger mixing job the band would have a true beast on it's hands.
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