Early Graves
Goner

September 2010
Released: 2010, Metal Blade Records
Rating: 3.0/5
Reviewer: Demonator

When San Francisco's Early Graves dropped their debut joint, WE: THE GUILLOTINE in 2008, a sizable portion of the underground fraternity promptly sat up and took notice, not least of all thanks to guest turns by such credibility-rendering glitterati as Today Is The Day's Steve Austin. Mixing old school crust punk with thrash and anchoring it in metalcore's youthful malaise was by no means a new concept, but one which the then-quintet executed very well.



Their sophomore outing comes amidst the unfortunate backdrop of vocalist Makh Daniels tragic death, and sonically it strips the band's blueprint of much of its eccentric ambition, opting instead for straight-ahead violence in the Disfear mould. Indeed “Faith Is Shit”'s frenetic riffing, embellished by a terrifically gritty production effort suggests that this was the right way for the Early Graves to go, and songs like "Rot" and “May Day” make no bones of their creators’ discontent with society's social ills. The pace is mostly breakneck and when the tempo does wane it's usually only provide the briefest respite. After all, when most of your cuts barely eclipse the two minute mark, there's precious little time to bother with such pedantic niceties as dynamics.



Effective as this may be at first, GONER does have a tendency toward the sort of run of the mill tuneage you'd expect to hear from a disappointing support act. At first, it sounds thoroughly impressive - enough even to convince you to have a wonder down to the front row and get physical. By the time the band have hit the quarter hour mark however, their schtick has become as tiresome as the beer being spilled on you by the dickhead standing to your left.