UMUR
"As Rapture Comes" is the 7th full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Grave. The album was released through Century Media Records in July 2006. It´s the successor to "Fiendish Regression" from 2004 and it features the exact same lineup who recorded the predecessor.
Stylistically there haven´t been many changes since "Fiendish Regression (2004)", and the material on "As Rapture Comes" therefore pretty much continues down the same old school Swedish death metal path as Grave tread on the predecessor. They occasionally make use of some crushingly brutal grooves, which was a trait they picked up in the mid-90s, but other than that, this is the epitome of old School Swedish death metal. It´s well played, well produced, and the material is well written and effective too, but when the album ends, I still have the feeling that a bit more variation in the songwriting department could have made the album a more interesting listen.
It opens really strong with "Burn" (after the short "Intro - Day of Reckoning"), which is a track displaying everything great about Grave, but only a couple of tracks into the album and the tracks begin to flow together. It´s not a major issue when listening to an old school death metal album, where you don´t necessarily expect great diversity, but it´s just an observation, that the album could have been stronger, if the songwriting had been more varied. The cover of "Them Bones" by Alice in Chains doesn´t add much to my overall impression of the album, although it is a pretty great choice for a cover song.
As it is "As Rapture Comes" is still a strong death metal release by Grave, and neither fans of the band nor old school death metal fans in general, will probably be disappointed here. Brutal aggressive growling vocals, downtuned brutal riffs, the occasional screaming solo, and a solid and fairly (for the genre) varied rhythmic assault. It´s the kind of album where you get exactly what you expect. Nothing more...nothing less. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.