OUT NOW: CD, 12" LP (ltd 100 copies)
From the deepest pit of the American underground cult crawls the GRAVEWURM, relentlessly pursuing their muse since 1990: only the darkest, ugliest, absolutely swampiest blackdeath. Now with their seventh and final album "Blood of the Pentagram," GRAVEWURM continue to perfect that muse, engrossingly hypnotizing with an addictive minimalism that's simply bred for headbanging. Darker than ever, uglier than ever, and ever obedient to his majesty at the swamp - drink deep the Blood of the Pentagram!
Recommended for diehards of GOATLORD, SODOM, HELLHAMMER, NUNSLAUGHTER, early VARATHRON, and SATHANAS/BATHYM!
FINAL LIVE DATES:
*June 4th @ The Midway Cafe Jamaica Plain, MA with Hirudinea, Blessed Offal and Nachzehrer
*Sunday June 5th @ The Delancy Brooklyn New York with Dimentianon and others TBA
*Saturday August 20th @ TBA Fort Wayne Indiana with The Lurking Corpses and others TBA
+ more to be announced
Review from Zero Tolerance Magazine:
"Very metal! This is just pure evil, no clever/funny nonsense, no painful extremity, just evil... heavy... metal. Back down to the essentials, somewhere between HELLHAMMER and BLACK SABBATH, holding a similar deathly aura of burning hate as the former, a dramatic sense of destiny and pride as the latter. Meanwhile, a weird sinister occultism ala BEHERIT stews in the background whilst BURZUM-esque forest-haunting riffs occasionally stride out from the undergrowth. There's an effortless poise and flow throughout the album that sustains the frequent slow-to-mid-paced sorties which would hinder a less-experienced group, leading to an obscure sense of languid torpor. Yet with all but two of this album's 12 songs reaching the gate in less than four minutes, it's testament to the quality of songwriting that such sinewy atmospheric music can sit so comfortably alongside the straight-ahead proto-blackthrash riffs which comprises the other side to the album. Dramatic and epic yet almost humble in its lack of pretense, this is simply good metal."
"Some of the most vile, most evil-sounding metal out there" -Metalassaultradio.com
"This disgusting and hideously glorious band goes out with a magnificent stench withBlood of the Pentagram... Classic raw, aggressive, nihilistic metal with a moderate punkgrit like most early black metal classics, this thing delivers the true feel of cult and rottennostalgia... I honestly can't say anything except buy this sleaze and wallow in the blissfulfilth that Gravewurm unleashes. This release brings tears to my eyes, quite possibly fromthe foul burning fumes that leach out from within this album, but it's more than likely mysentimental side that is always deeply touched when paying a farewell to the beautifullyperverse and crude" -Metal Maniacs
"A slow, ugly, minimalist form of black metal, albeit with a modern sounding production. Slow, simple riffing, a generally slow to mid-paced percussion, and greasy, yet understandable rasps are typical of Blood of the Pentagram, an album with the same sort of vibe that I get from ACHERON catchy, memorable riffs, all the while backed up by the greasily rasped vocals and an audible bass" -About.com
"I wasn't too keen on this at first spin, as I thought it had a kind of black n' roll feel to it, but this grew on me until it dawned on me that this disc could be summed up with: SODOM. Yeah, pretty much. If you liked In the Sign of Evil, you will like this. For a veteran band to sound this primitive, it has to be on purpose, and it's all here. Raw, primal riffs, a caveman production job, the vocals that sound like a glass-gargling dwarf - everything about this is stripped down to the bone, sounding like the most unevolved proto-thrash/black metal you can imagine. If you love this kind of HELLHAMMER/VENOM stuff, then get this fucker and go nuts" -Metalreviews.com [4/5 rating]
"Minimalistic and filthy metal hailing the early pioneers of death metal, thrash metal and black metal. No fancy shit - just straightforward, relentless black metal with a lot of death metal, thrash metal and a few doom metal influences. Music to denounce God and bang your head to" -Minacious.org
"In line with the band's often doomy black efforts, Blood of the Pentagram combinessome of the old CELTIC FROST sound with a hint of MORBID's December Moon thrownin... While retaining that thin foreboding essence to the music, Blood also taps into theold Swedish reserve oh-so-generously with the aforementioned MORBID and someENTOMBED... This album reverberates like one of the old demos we'd get in the mail backin the day from some underground band that had the right formula if not the luck ofthe draw. In that sense, it's a cult throwback... There's something to be said for that old-school feel" -Metalpsalter.com
TRACK LIST:
1) Goat Command, 2) Grave, 3) Deeper Dungeons, 4) Blood Of The Pentagram, 5) Necromance, 6) Brought Before The Altar, 7) Infernal Devilry, 8) Lycanthropic, 9) Hordes Of Hell, 10) Two Coins For Charon, 11) In Praise Of Evil, 12) The Sign Of A Dark Destiny
BIOGRAPHY:
GRAVEWURM started in October 1990 under the name DOMINION to spew forth a blend of death and doom metal in a similar regard to their influences at the time. Goatlord, Paradise Lost, Asphyx, Saint Vitus, Cathedral and their biggest influence Hellhammer, lead to the creation of sinister riffs, dirge-like atmospheres and embraced the emerging minimalist school of thought concerning song creation. After two putrid rehearsal tapes, the band changed monikers to Gravewurm due to it's change in writing style and attitude toward the underground. While retaining some of their doom laden influences, the additon of more aggression in their songs paved way for a presence of depressive atmospheres with an infernal grasp of darkened heavy metal. Some new influences were added around '93/'94. At that time, Darkthrone, Funeral Nation, Beherit, Gehenna and Burzum's black metal essence added to the Gravewurm sound which remains to this day. They have played shows with the mighty Destroyer 666, Absurd, Grand Belial's Key, Negative Plane, Slugathor, Arghoslent, Satanic Warmaster, Hellwitch, Merciless Death, At War, Toxic Holocaust, After Death and were a part of the Antichrist Vanguards Tour 2007 which featured Angelcorpse and Watain.
DISCOGRAPHY:
*Bestial Wrath (Demo, 1992)
*The Morbid Decomposure of Mankind (Demo, 1992)
*Possessed By Darkness (Demo, 1993)
*Sinister Curse (Demo, 1994)
*Massacre in Heaven (Demo, 1995)
*Ancient Storms of War (Demo, 1995)
*Nocturnal Spells (Demo, 1996)
*Command of Satan's Blade (Demo, 1998)
*W.A.R.B.E.A.S.T. (EP, 2000)
*Ancient Storms of War (Full-length, 2000)
*Warbeast / Command of Satan's Blade (Best of/Compilation, 2001)
*split w/ Apokalyptic Raids (EP, 2001)
*split w/ Derketa, Witchburner, Sadomaniac (EP, 2002)
*The Bestial Hordes (EP, 2002)
*Dark Souls of Hell (Full-length, 2002)
*Carnivorous Monarchy (EP, 2003)
*Into Battle (Full-length, 2003)
*split w/ Devil Lee Rot (EP, 2004)
*Under the Banner of War (Full-length, 2005)
*split w/ Evil Angel, Nailgunner, Grippiud (EP, 2006)
*split w/ Suicidal Winds (CD, 2006)
*split w/ Hekseri (CD, 2007)
*split w/ Daemonlord (EP, 2007)
*split w/ Throneum (EP, 2007)
*split w/ Nunslaughter (EP, 2007)
*Carnivorous in Boston (Live album, 2008)
*Funeral Empire (Full-length, 2009)
*split w/ Wintress (CD, 2009)
*Black Fire (Full-length, 2010)
*Blood of the Pentagram (Full-length, 2010)
Additional notes:
*Don of the Dead and Jim Sadist from NunSlaughter played on the 'Warbeast' 7" . Blakk of AngelKill did backing vocals on "Command of Satan's Blade" '98 demo and Joel Grind from Toxic Holocaust played drums on the "Carnivorous Monarchy" EP.
