Alastor delivers epic, doom-laden heaviness on their debut LP Slave To The Grave due out via RidingEasy Records on October 31st. The Swedish-based band formed in 2016 and released two EPs in 2017: “Black Magic” (Twin Earth Records) and “Blood On Satan’s Claw” (Ljudkassett!). This year the group joined RidingEasy Records and recorded their 7-track full-length debut for the label. Steeped in the occult roots of early Sabbath-era metal, Slave To The Grave employs colossal low-end and searing guitar work in it’s downwardly tuned meditations on life’s bleakest subjects.
Exploring themes of existential dread, lead guitarist Lucy Ferian has this to say about the upcoming LP: “It’s an album that circles around the concept of death. It’s about death in both its spiritual and personal meaning — how death is a part of our everyday life. How it affects our thoughts and actions. How some of us spend our entire life in fear of death, while some seek it. But no matter how you live your life and no matter what you achieve here on this earth. You are still just a slave to the grave.”
The album’s title track is blacklit by a trance-inducing riff with a head-nodding groove that runs in powerful lockstep with the cut’s bass and drums. Growling low-end dominates here as guitars that sound capable of setting fire to your speakers crackle under the weight of this track’s gravity. Meanwhile, vocalist Dharma Gheddon narrates a chilling tale of psychic dissolution with “creatures of darkness” at his side. Hypnotic and seductive, “Slave To The Grave” is like warm quicksand slowly dragging you under.
