Finland’s Graveborne has a slight identity crisis, but it’s a peculiar case. They obviously meant to be a black metal band, and a black metal band they are. The problem comes from their identity within that definition, and understanding exactly at what they excel. In this way, sophomore album Through the Window of the Night shows talent, promise, and achievement. But it also shows an almost stubborn dedication to a sub-sub-style that the band is only decent at, while their most fitting attack is barely touched.
Through the Window of the Night gets started like gangbusters. Opener “Burn the City of God” bursts right out of the gate with a heavy, slightly thrashy black metal force, coming across like some combination of Tsjuder and the more trampoline-riff side of Ravencult. Combined with some harsh and direct vocals, it gives the impression that the ensuing 35 minutes are going to be unstoppable.
And then they largely abandon that sound. With a couple of exceptions, the rest of Through the Window of the Night spends its time heaping on the blast beats and oodles upon oodles of ice cold tremolo riffing. It’s kind of a beefy, dense meloblack-by-way-of-Norway sound, and at times it’s fairly successful. Within the maelstrom, there are moments that surprise, such as the dynamic shifts of “Misericordia,” the nice Dissection impression of “Todkrieg,” or several stripped down, “forward momentum” drives (respect the hi-hat, folks). But the band never fully gets back to what it does best, and a shift to more of a straight scream in the vocal department also harms the whole, especially on throwaway track “Into the Abyss.” To all but the most untrained of black metal ears, the end result is a pretty solid album that lacks real cohesion.
This might be because, as a band, Graveborne doesn’t seem entirely convinced about their goal. Changing up between their riff-o-matic, filthy, and more compositionally advanced sides doesn’t serve the album all that well, and they are clearly far better at getting sassy with the blackened heft. Through the Window of the Night is far from a failure, but in a world where these types of projects are a dime a dozen, Graveborne is going to have a really hard time finding ears.
