There's something terribly endearing about a band who's so clearly dedicated to what they do. Take Russian Graced Disgrace. Front woman Polina sent me an email in advance to warn me that a CD would arrive. Cool. The CD arrived - signed by the band, mind you! - and Polina wrote me once again to make sure that it had acutally arrived. Cool.
Receiving CD's like this from a completely unknown band becomes so much more interesting when there's actually something worth listening to on the disc. And there is in this case. Clearly technically well-founded, Grace Disgraced lean heavily on Death as an inspirational source, but also on the more brutal section of the technical death metal bands. If you like plenty of time shifts and breaks, you'll like this. There's variation in abundance, killer riffs and mature song writing.
The wee Polina in the front is Russia's answer to Angela Gossow - and then some. She sports a voice from hell, and that is naturally not at all a bad thing.
The album clearly has a nineties sound to it - but, mind you, mixed higher than what we were used to back then. Again, this is not a bad thing. It brings back memories and at the same time reminds us that some younger bands are actually able to recreate some of the atmosphere we loved back then. Not a bad thing to check out, this one.
