The German label War Anthem Records has spawned a considerable amount of nice Old School Death Metal split 7” EP’s over the past few years. And to that series we can now add this one, Finland’s Lie In Ruins teaming up here with the Spanish masters of Death Metal split EP’s, Graveyard. Let’s go for another ride of quality Death Metal.
To Lie In Ruins the honour of kicking off, their song ‘Curling Smoke’ starts with an eerie sounding acoustic guitar and with an equally sinister guitar lead before erupting into a violent mid-tempo Death Metal song that can without a doubt proudly bear the Lie In Ruins name. As on their albums, Lie In Ruins finishes the songs nicely with plenty of dynamics (mainly in some tempo changes) and well-written riffs. Not particularly catchy, but still surprisingly fresh in sound and character. The Finns are not particularly prolific, but what they bring is always of pretty decent quality, and their contribution to this split 7″ EP definitely falls into that category.
Where Lie In Ruins might be slightly less prolific, the Spaniards of Graveyard make up for it with their pretty impressive back catalogue. For them, this is now like the 10th time they have shared a piece of vinyl and once again they do so quite convincingly. In a number of my reviews, I have already dropped that Old School Death Metal lends itself mainly to (split) EP’s and much less to full-length albums, mainly because of the rather narrow musical scope. This largely applies to Graveyard as well, where the albums usually can’t stay captivating for the full playing length, I always remain entertained by their short-lengths. That also applies to this new track, ‘Crossing The Circle’, on which, by the way, the band does surprise by actually sounding remarkably little like the Spanish equivalent of any random Swedish Death Metal band. The band sounds more resourceful here and the song has a pretty versatile character, with the, by Graveyard standards, flashy guitar work stealing the show. Another successful split 7″ EP that can be added to the Spaniards’ palmarès.
