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Grief of Emerald has been around since 1996 and has released two other albums, "Nightspawn" in 1998 and "Malformed Seed" in 2000.

Hailing FROM Sweden and knowing about that regions of the worlds output of killer bands over the last ten years would generally lead you to the belief that this is yet another melodic death metal band. Well after listening to this album that thought process has been eradicated. This sounds a lot more in the vein of American death metal than it does Swedish. Very heavy rhythm work on the guitar, blast beats every so often and a vocalist that sounds like someone is slowly shoving bamboo shoots under his fingernails. If you are not familiar with American death metal you will have to trust me when I say that these are all very good things…heh. That is certainly not all to this band however since they also add keyboards for some atmosphere and a good dose of dynamics which all adds up to a pretty damn good album. If I had to compare the sound to anyone in particular I would have to go with a heavier sounding version of Dimmu Borgir on their last release, PEM. The musicianship on this album is well above average with everyone adding some very impressive technical skills. The guitar leads shred but without losing touch with overall feel of the song. The drums remind me quite a bit of Nick Barker (Dimmu) or Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Testament, Grip Inc….etc etc etc) which is quite a compliment considering these are two of my all time favorite drummers.

Overall an album that really surprised me with its quality. To be honest I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. I just love it when I get an album that can make my jaded and bitter attitude slightly less jaded and bitter..heh. Highly Recommended.