This Dutch band has already released an EP back in 2011, but that one slipped me.
Within the metalcore genre there is a lot of uniformity and many bands sound the
same with singers sounding the same and that leads to boredom. This band has
definitely metal core roots and influences in their music, but they add lots of
groove and thrash influences to it. Sure there are indeed a lot more bands doing
the same, but not all with success. Grim Ordeal is a band that combines these
influences in a rather unique way.
Grim Ordeal uses the different genres in a nice way and adds some dissonant
riffs and rather technical elements to the songs. The drums hammer away very
tight, although they could have sounded a bit more brutal, at times they sound a bit limp. The vocals of Otto Donk sound brutal and aggressive and if you
listen closely, they sound a bit like Jan Chris de Koeyer, but then a little
less extreme and brutal. Especially in the song "Sombre Sun" I have to think of
Chris many times.
I like the band best when they slow down a little bit, then they really are at
their best. Both guitar players do a very good job and their riffs are melodic
and very fresh sounding. In the more grooving songs, such as "The Shade of Black
Water" and especially "Darkside Hatred" the band has influences of Machine Head
with a Pantera groove. In a faster song like "Metastatic Hatred" they impress me
a little less, it is an average song and in my opinion the weakest one on the
album. The very technical and almost mathematical riffing at the beginning of "Breathing
the Dark" is very impressive and is the start of a well written and arranged
song that although it is rather technical, never becomes too complex or
complicated. The final track combines very fast parts with slower ones and has
some Machine Head beeping guitar sounds in it and with the brutal singing of
Otto all over it, the song sounds like Machine Head jamming with Gorefest.
Fans of the bands that I mentioned above have to check this out for certain.
