Review GRACELESS ‘Chants from Purgatory’

Graceless from Leiden, Holland have become an important player in the Dutch death metal scene over the past six years. The band was founded in 2016 by Remco Kreft (Soulburn) and released with ‘Shadowlands’ a debut album that already caused quite a buzz.

The first time I heard of Graceless was when I heard and saw the band live. That was back in 2017 when Graceless played a home show at Gebr. de Nobel in Leiden, NL. The quartet opened for Vallenfyre and performed a really good set.

In the meantime, the four guys brought with ‘Where Vultures Know Your Name’ another album to the light of day and the follow-up is hitting the stores these days. ‘Chants from Purgatory’ is the title of the third Graceless album and this longplayer has it all. The Dutchmen celebrate once again a blend of death metal, in which also more traditional metal influences come into play a few times. While many other death metal bands rely on brute speed, the slow riffs of Graceless are more the ones that grab your attention.

With ‘Giants’ a tune that lives up to its name starts off the record. Here is no long held up with intros or the similar. The beginning of the album is a start from 0 to 100.

On it goes with the furious title track, which is equipped with an irresistible vehemence. The death metal machine rolls unstoppably and it’s the riff-based slower middle section that is impossible to escape.

‘This Ends With the World in Ruins’, on the other hand, begins calmly and acoustically before a smashing riff breaks the deceptive calm. Despite all the intensity, the song also has also melodic elements which gives ‘This Ends With the World in Ruins’ a certain variation. It is not just blindly going for brutality here.

Graceless’ song contain a subtle kind of musical ferocity. The slow middle part of the song is also mentioned here, amplifying the heavy sections.

It is exactly this versatility that distinguishes ‘Chants from Purgatory’. ‘Saint’ for example is an untamed death metal steam hammer, while the closing track ‘Time Has Come for Us All’ with its six minutes playing time is a mature and varied tune with a lot of impact.

Remco Kreft and bandmates have brought with album number three their most elaborate work to date to the record stores. If you like intense death metal with harmonies and brutality, you should definitely not miss ‘Chants from Purgatory’.