Review Degraved "Spectral Realm of Ruin"

For the first time, I came into contact with the guys from Degraved from Seattle, the very city that, even decades after the phenomenon broke out, is still primarily identified with the so-called “grunge” phenomenon, at least among middle-aged people here in Germany.

But let's move on to the great debut album by this band, which first attracted attention in 2020 with the “Exhumned Remnants” demo. This was followed in 2023 by the EP “Whispered Morbidity,” then in 2024 by a split 7“ with their colleagues from Cystic, also from Seattle, and finally, at the beginning of this year, the ”Premonition of Blasphemy" demo, whose three tracks are now also included on the seven-track debut album.

The album is being released by Dark Descent Records, and Degraved fits perfectly into this label's roster with their dark, ominous, dirty death metal. The cover alone piques the interest, perfectly capturing the old-school vibe while avoiding the usual clichés that have been reproduced thousands of times on album artwork. Degraved play simply fantastic, no-frills death metal that skillfully defies overly simplistic labels. The band is certainly not particularly original, but I would bet my house that this is not their goal. Nevertheless, they cannot be easily compared or described by throwing one to three band names into the room and then assuming that it is clear what their music sounds like. Despite their stylistic limitations within the narrow confines of death metal, Degraved manage to unleash quite a dynamic force in their debut album, so that listening to it never gets boring, thanks in no small part to the great songwriting and the occasional surprising idea. Sometimes Degraved are fast, then again doom-laden and gloomy, with transitions that are always harmonious and serve the songs well; sometimes it gets really groovy, and live the material is sure to get the audience moving. As points of reference, I would nevertheless mention bands such as Incantation, Dead Congregation, Disma, Disembowelment, or even their label mates Spectral Voice (Read the review of their latest great album “Sparagmos” here), whom Degraved resemble in their best doom-laden moments and are in no way inferior to in terms of their dark and ominous atmosphere, although, as already mentioned, Degraved are much more stylistically variable. The deep, throaty, yet accentuated vocals also fit perfectly. 

In the opening track “Pariash of Death & Darkness,” a truly powerful opener, Degraved celebrate all facets of their skill, varying the speeds, with the driving mid-tempo parts in particular inevitably making your foot tap along. All the tracks on this album are great, but I would particularly like to highlight the almost seven-minute-long “Unseen,” which is so well crafted that even with this unusually long song length for old-school death metal, there's never a dull moment. This is ensured not only by the great, often simple but nevertheless extremely accurate riffs, but also by subtle synthesizer inserts and quiet acoustic parts, among other things. 

In summary, I can highly recommend this 36-minute work to all old-school enthusiasts; you will definitely be impressed. A joint tour with Spectral Voice would be a great idea! And who knows, maybe Nirvana would find Degraved cool these days, considering their fondness for Celtic Frost and the fact that someone recently discovered a reference to King Diamond on the cover of their “Bleach”-LP...