I'll come straight out and say this was an impulse buy. There is a lot of chatter surrounding Grave Pilgrim in the online community these days, I saw that this EP was in stock for a reasonable price so I got it... without listening to it.
Now that breaks several of my normal rules: I don't like impulse buying things and I don't like buying things without hearing them. This one got the best of me... I just hoped it was good.
Grave Pilgrim plays a rawish form of black metal that seems to rely on a few novel factors. The band doesn't seem to use full on distortion, the guitar tone seems to be heavily over driven instead. This gives the music a classic rock and roll feel, at least with the notes coming from the guitar - not necessarily the riffs. The second, and perhaps the more compelling factor) is a heavy dose of sounds and tones from the Wild West (if that wasn't already obvious by the album cover).
The EP contains only a few real songs, and those are serviceable. They are catchy and somehow conjure tones of people moving west to find gold... that is to say they have a hope in the riffs and music despite the obvious black metal basis. This shift in tone from a typical darkness laid black metal band is quite a welcome one, and gives the album a unique character in a crowded black metal field.
This is only emphasized more by the interlude tracks. While many of these songs still have black metal elements (vocals, over-driven guitars), they also lack any sort of percussion. Young Hickory in particular feels like cowboys around a fire sharing stories at night.
While there really isn't much to Molten Hands Reach West, the 23 minutes that it does have are packed full of unique ideas and fascinating executions. I'm going to be checking out the bands full length down the road due to how cool this album was to spend time with. Here's hoping that one gets a repress soon too.
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