Review by Felix on April 27, 2024.

Some critics wrote about "Nemesis", the second album of Grip Inc., that the band just had tried again to captivate the listener with its success formula of the ingenious debut. I did not share this point of view. Yet it seems that the musicians took this criticism seriously. "Solidify" did not ignore the musical roots of the band. But it left no doubt that the highly talented musicians had started a journey in order to reach new shores. Dave Lombardo took the foot off the gas pedal so that the compositions showed a different approach. Consequently, the album sounded less furious without lacking of heaviness. And what was more, the modified approach led to fascinating results. The maliciously crawling "Griefless" reflected the new roadmap of Grip Inc. in a brilliant manner. Drilling guitar riffs characterised the beginning and the end of the song. They also occurred during the choruses and were constantly alternating with the calm verses. While the riffing offered the well-known outstanding quality of Sorychta´s work, exactly the tranquil sequences emphasised the menacing aura. Gus Chambers also played his part without the slightest error. The dark lyrics matched with the atmosphere of the verses and caused discomfort. While listening to them, I got the feeling of walking down a poorly illuminated street at night, not knowing, who moves in my back. Finally, the suspenseful solo part confirmed the perfect balance of malignancy and melody. A "gripping" highlight.

The focusing on "Griefless" does not mean that the remaining tracks stood in its shadow. At least half of the album reached an overwhelming level. To be more concrete, the first five songs could hardly be beaten. Their constructions were roughly comparable with that of "Griefless" - with one exception. "Amped" seemed to be a forgotten jewel of the recording session for their debut. The slicing riffs broke any kind of resistance and the whipping drums set the noteworthy pace. Despite its short breaks, the song became a vortex of brutality, driven by the precise double bass of Lombardo. Backward-looking consumers might be of the opinion that "Amped" marked the only track that revealed the "true" Grip Inc. These nostalgic people ignore that already the second album of the band did not follow strictly the direction of the debut. However, "Amped" was the best Slayer song of the nineties - and please understand this as a serious compliment.

Despite the artillery fire of "Stresscase" or the accusing yet quick-tempered "Verräter (Betrayer)", the second half of the full-length was slightly weaker. However, the only throwaway tracks were the calm and almost philosophical "Human?" and "Vindicate". The latter one suffered from edgy yet somehow aimless riffs and the slightly bumpy chorus did not reveal the full effectiveness of the band. Nevertheless, nine exciting tracks left their mark while being equipped with a transparent, offensive and punchy sound. Without question, Grip Inc. bared its teeth, regardless of the more dignified compositions. They had found a very good balance between fanaticism and calculation. To put it in a nutshell, "Solidify" was a very good album. From a present day point of view, it does not mark the climax of their artistic creativity. Nevertheless, it possesses at least a handful of songs (and a fantastic drum solo in the last track) that each and every thrash metal addict must know.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by Frost on November 28, 2021.

Sepulchral Rift is a band out of Sweden that formed in 2018. Their debut EP, which came out only a month ago, is a shining example of how to blend black and death metal right and create a real solid musical outing that reeks of pure sinister terror and brutality.

This EP consists of four tracks, two of which are shorter ambient intros that introduce each song. These tracks are about three minutes long a piece and, while they aren't particularly bad and they do provide a real unsettling atmosphere, they're not adding much besides adding to the length of the EP. I feel these would fit better in a future full-length if they manage to get that far. The meat and potatoes of this little EP are the two songs, both a whopping eight minutes in length, but the two men here know how to pace themselves and nothing on here feels boring, overdone, overly long, and there's not any repetitively boring or repetitively annoying parts.

The first song is 'Altar Of Funeral Incarceration' and it's a whopper of a song. It opens really strongly with these cavernous death metal riffs that are ripped right from the Ninth Circle Of Hell. Chugging, slow moving, crushing chords that rumble with that wonderfully familiar Swedeath chainsaw sound we know and love we know bands like Entombed and Dismember made popular and so many other bands used, but never managed to replicate. Sepulchral Rift don't so much replicate it as much as they make it their own as they eventually pick up speed halfway through and treat us to a black metal firestorm. While the guitars and drums steamroll through everything in sight, this part feels slightly weaker when put next to the slower chugging death metal sections its sandwiched between.

The second song feels much more like a black metal song. 'Invoking The Eclipse Of Shekinah' starts off way different from the last song, beginning with a distant tremolo picked minor scale that evokes the aura of a proper black metal song much more than the previous song; and it continues in that way as the drumming is consistently faster and the bass is buried behind the guitars, which is pretty typical for black metal. The death metal parts of this song and the last one benefit the bass as it's much easier to make out the low end coming through as he's playing. Once more, separating the two from each other, about one half of this song is black metal while the other half is death metal. On this song, I'd say the opposite is true as opposed to the previous song: the black metal sound is victorious.

Not much to say about this short little EP. I really like it. It's a little inconsistent with the ambient intros that break up the pace and the first song really working more as a pure death metal song but, beyond those little nitpicks, I've got no major problems with this. Check it out and give the NNP (Nihilistic Noise Propaganda) label a look see. They're a new label that could use all the help in these trying times like we all do.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Frost on November 28, 2021.

Sepulchral Rift is a band out of Sweden that formed in 2018. Their debut EP, which came out only a month ago, is a shining example of how to blend black and death metal right and create a real solid musical outing that reeks of pure sinister terror and brutality.

This EP consists of four tracks, two of which are shorter ambient intros that introduce each song. These tracks are about three minutes long a piece and, while they aren't particularly bad and they do provide a real unsettling atmosphere, they're not adding much besides adding to the length of the EP. I feel these would fit better in a future full-length if they manage to get that far. The meat and potatoes of this little EP are the two songs, both a whopping eight minutes in length, but the two men here know how to pace themselves and nothing on here feels boring, overdone, overly long, and there's not any repetitively boring or repetitively annoying parts.

The first song is 'Altar Of Funeral Incarceration' and it's a whopper of a song. It opens really strongly with these cavernous death metal riffs that are ripped right from the Ninth Circle Of Hell. Chugging, slow moving, crushing chords that rumble with that wonderfully familiar Swedeath chainsaw sound we know and love we know bands like Entombed and Dismember made popular and so many other bands used, but never managed to replicate. Sepulchral Rift don't so much replicate it as much as they make it their own as they eventually pick up speed halfway through and treat us to a black metal firestorm. While the guitars and drums steamroll through everything in sight, this part feels slightly weaker when put next to the slower chugging death metal sections its sandwiched between.

The second song feels much more like a black metal song. 'Invoking The Eclipse Of Shekinah' starts off way different from the last song, beginning with a distant tremolo picked minor scale that evokes the aura of a proper black metal song much more than the previous song; and it continues in that way as the drumming is consistently faster and the bass is buried behind the guitars, which is pretty typical for black metal. The death metal parts of this song and the last one benefit the bass as it's much easier to make out the low end coming through as he's playing. Once more, separating the two from each other, about one half of this song is black metal while the other half is death metal. On this song, I'd say the opposite is true as opposed to the previous song: the black metal sound is victorious.

Not much to say about this short little EP. I really like it. It's a little inconsistent with the ambient intros that break up the pace and the first song really working more as a pure death metal song but, beyond those little nitpicks, I've got no major problems with this. Check it out and give the NNP (Nihilistic Noise Propaganda) label a look see. They're a new label that could use all the help in these trying times like we all do.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10