What’s the best part of raping a zombie? Hearing the hip bone go crack! Actually can you rape a zombie? Can they actually say nooooooouuughhh? What am I talking about? Well first of these five numbers is called Raping Zombies which pretty much saw it on my review pile from the off. Lord Of The Grave are from Switzerland, a place that has been responsible for two of my favourite albums so far this year by Blutmond and Borgne. This is a completely different affair though from the land of cuckoo clocks and yummy chocolate, a much slower affair. Following on from 2009 release ‘Raunacht’ this is just the second release from the band who opened their debut with a track called Holy Vitus giving plenty of clues about what they worship.

They do not do anything in a rush here in the slightest and as far as zombies are concerned that is the only way they should be, all that fast moving bullshit completely wrecks what could be good films. This is fuzz laden, there is no other way to describe it and the mix is pretty crushing with the low end reverberating and trembling out the speakers. The lines are crushing, the vocals are clean and craggy and it goes on for an eternity with guitar riffs jangling away before things take on a sudden unexpected turn. Yep the band also like a bit of the old blues and this comes through as the up the ante with some Southern fried licks that are fragrant and smoooookin. All that is missing here is a yeehaw but if you listen out for a sample at the end it’s the undead who get the last laugh.

This has a real classic feel to it and Sabbath are fairly mentioned in the one sheet that came with this. Listening to it the bands that also are on the tip of my tongue are similarly from England and the likes of Electric Wizard, Serpent Venom, Pombagira and Orange Goblin due to that bluesy break could all be cited here. I kind of find myself tuning into the cymbal clashes here and the drummer really relies on them to keep the slow tempo of the groove laden music moving. After that first 15 minute monster of a number we ooze into the Green Vapour itself and after a down tool intro it’s pretty much business as usual. You are not going to find a massive amount of diversification to things throughout the album, certainly don’t go looking for a sudden thrash number or anything, besides it is dangerous to give someone as stoned as you are likely to be listening to this a sudden shock. On the whole I like this but see it a bit pointless trying to go and dissect it track by track. I wouldn’t do anything like operate heavy machinery or drive a tank to it but then again seeing as I am banned from such activities it’s not a problem, hell though I wouldn’t really try and do the cleaning up to it.

Over the 5 songs Lords Of The Lost pretty much pound you into submission and try their best to blow your speakers, I bet they leaf (sic) you totally deaf when they play live. They also have songs about a Horsepuncher and say “fuck” a lot, so if all this sounds like it is going to make your saddle blaze buckle up and make sure it’s done up tight as you don’t want to fall off during this ride.

( 7/10 Pete Woods)

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