July 19, 2013 | , | 4

Bone Sickness, Alone in the Grave

Bone Sickness: Alone in the Grave

Channeling the, well, sickness of Autopsy and the grinding mayhem of early Repulsion, Olympia’s Bone Sickness deliver one hell of an EP with Alone in the Grave. The music found in these seven songs is violent, disturbed, malignant and causes you to trepidatiously think to yourself just what the fuck these dudes are doing alone in a grave. One glance as the song titles should clue you in. Dirty little bastards.

“Submit to Decay” lurches into being like the re-animated husk of a corpse fighting the very thing this four piece is going on about in this opening track. The guitars are thick and sludgy as they build progressively through an Autopsy influence to a murky groove before unleashing utter recklessness at the one minute mark. At this point the drums ramp up to skull crushing levels and the guitars weave in and out of sloughing flesh all in the name of rending tissue from the bone. Vocally, the guttural utterances are indecipherable and fit the overall tone of the music perfectly. I can’t think of a more appropriate introduction to this band than this opening song.

There’s so much going on between Chase Slaker and Rusty Graff throughout the album from churning, buzzing riffage to trading leads that are about as evil (and as classic death metal sounding) as you can get. “Strange Obsession” is a prime example of what this tandem can do to a song. The track is dense and covered in rotting detritus and yet flows smoothly, effortlessly like putrid digestive juices through an embalming hose. The viscera continues to fly haphazardly as “Paranoid Delusions,” “Scraping Bones,” and the title track course through your speakers violently. The midpoint of the release is a whirlwind of grinding blasts, sludgy doom and death metal — you can hear various influences here and there, but none stick around long enough to cause concern.

The absolute pummeling you take on “Death and Dismemberment” is fueled with classic death metal riffing and a barrage of barbaric drums. The vocals get lost in the swell of malevolence at times, fading into the mix as another instrument as sick leads explode like ruptured pustules on decomposing flesh. “Tied to the Stake” wraps up the EP with a tempered tempo and solid groove. It’s a bit of a departure from the more rabid pieces on the album, but still carries Bone Sickness’ sound well as the launch into the grave head first with a frantic eruption of activity to end the track.

Alone in the Grave is one of those short releases that captivates. The music on here is pretty heavily influenced, but not once does it embrace a full-on mimicry of the band’s idols. Bone Sickness are a young band with plenty of growing up to do, but if the 18 minutes of aural abuse found here is any indication, it won’t take too long for them to fully hit their stride.