![black grail – viiii [ep]](https://www.vm-underground.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Black-Grail-VIIII-EP-cover.jpg "Black Grail – VIIII [EP]")
Info
- Band(s): Black Grail
- Label(s): Iron Bonehead Productions
- Release Format(s): 12" vinyl, CD
- Release Year: 2022
- Review Date: September 6, 2022
Satanic/Occult obsessed Santiago, Chile based Black Metal band Black Grail have been active for the better part of two decades, however the post-Covid period has seen them at their most prolific to date in terms of releases. ‘VIIII’ is the trio’s brand new EP release and has been picked up by Iron Bonehead productions who have adorned both a CD and 12″ vinyl cover with the glorious artwork that you can see to the left.
What I wasn’t expecting from a Chilean Black Metal release was a slow, calm opening in which the subtle strumming of bass, and clean guitar tones meander somewhat serenely as the opening track builds slowly and surely, introducing chanted and croaked vocals and then controlled drum tones chime in as the clean guitar tones fade away and more severe sounding riffs gently make their way into the bands sound. In truth i don’t like the cleaner vocals on offer, they are out of tune and the vocalist can’t carry the right pitch for what he’s trying to deliver. Not only that, but the pace never picks up and the seven minute opening track just plods along and never reaches a crescendo. I’m not entirely sure what Black Grail were going for here but it simply doesn’t work. This wouldn’t have worked as a middle of the EP interlude, to open with it and then to continue into the next track in the same style is ludicrous.
Following this agonizing start to the EP the guitar leads final increase in hostility and the darkness descends as shrieked vocalled normality is somewhat resumed. The drumming display is simple yet savage and the band have bouts of intensive, dark riff-age here and there, but in truth this release never recovers from that disastrous and lengthy opening and for the most part ‘VIIII’ simply meanders through the motions of average musicianship, the odd moment of catchy fluent riff-age and very lack lustre song writing. With a roster the size and quality of Iron Bonehead’s, I’m not really sure what made them opt this. (Luke Hayhurst)
Black Grail
Related Articles
Iron Bonehead Productions
- Country: Germany
- Style: Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Other
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Youtube
Related Articles
Reviews
- Abhor - Occulta religiO {2018}
- Abhor / Abysmal Grief - Legione Occulta / Ministerium Diaboli [Split] {2019}
- Abhor - Sex Sex Sex (Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi) {2022}
- Abyssous – Mesa [EP] {2018}
- Abythic - Dominion of the Wicked {2021}
- Abythic - Eden Of The Doomed [EP] {2022}
- Adversvm - Aion Sitra Ahra {2018}
- Alchemyst - Nekromanteion {2012}
- Altarage - MMXV [Demo] {2015}
- Amnutseba - Emanatism {2020}
- Ancient Guard – Nightfall Enthroned [EP] {2024}
- Ancient Moon / Prosternatur - Secretum Secretorum [Split] {2018}
- Ancient Moon - Benedictus Diabolica, Gloria Patri {2019}
- Ancient North - The Gates {2022}
- Antediluvian / Heresiarch - Defleshing the Serpent Infinity [Split] {2020}
- Heresiarch - Edifice {2024}
- Antichrist [PER] – Pax Moriendi {2018}
- Aparthiva Raktadhara - Agyat Ishvar [EP] {2018}
- Aparthiva Raktadhara - Adyapeeth Maranasamhita (আদ্যাপীঠ মরণসংহিতা) {2022}
- Ara Solis - Ashvattha {2023}
- Arkhaaik - *dʰg̑ʰm̥tós {2019}
- Ascendency - Birth of an Eternal Empire [EP] {2020}
- Atomicide - Furious and Untamed [EP] {2018}
- Aum - Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum {2016}
- Axeslaughter / Cadaveric Incubator - Axeslaughter / Cadaveric Incubator [Split] {2018}
- Azathoth’s Dream – Nocturnal Vampyric Bewitchment {2023}
- Baxaxaxa - The Old Evil [Demo] {2019}
- Baxaxaxa - Devoted to HIM [EP] {2020}
- Beast Of Revelation - The Ancient Ritual of Death {2020}
- Black Cilice - Transfixion of Spirits {2019}
- Black Cilice – Tomb Emanations [EP] {2021}
- Black Cilice - Esoteric Atavism {2022}
- Black Cilice – Atavistic Possessions [EP] {2024}
- Black Edifice – The Miasmic Trance [EP] {2023}
- Black Funeral – The Dust and Darkness [EP] {2018}
- Black Funeral - Scourge Of Lamashtu {2020}
- Black Grail - VIIII [EP] {2022}
- Blaspherian - Upon the Throne...of Eternal Blasphemous Death [EP] {2014}
- Bloodsoaked Necrovoid - The Apocryphal Paths Of The Ancient 8th Vitriolic Transcendence {2019}
- Bloodsoaked Necrovoid - Expelled into the Unknown Depths of the Unfathomable {2020}
- Blooming Carrions - Sisters in Blooming Flesh [EP] {2019}
- Blue Hummingbird on the Left – Atl Tlachinolli {2019}
- Byyrth - Echoes from the Seven Caves of Blood {2018}
- Byyrth - Cold Autumn Shadows [EP] {2019}
- Cadaver Coils - Offerings of Rapture and Decay {2022}
- Calyx - Vientos arcaicos {2019}
- Celestial Grave - Secular Flesh {2019}
- Concilivm - A Monument In Darkness [Re-Release] {2022}
- Cosmic Void Ritual - Grotesque Infections of Planetary Divide [EP] {2018}
- Crucifier - Say Your Prayers [EP] {2022}
- Cult of Eibon – Black Flame Dominion {2021}
- Cult Of Eibon / Ceremonial Torture - Necronomical Mirror Divination [Split] {2022}
- Cult of Extinction - Ritual in the Absolute Absence of Light {2019}
- Cursed Excruciation - Arcane Diabolism {2023}
- Dakhma - Hamkar Atonement {2018}
- Dalkhu - Descend...into Nothingness {2015}
- Death. Void. Terror. – To the Great Monolith {2018}
- Deathless Void - Deathless Void [EP] {2022}
- Deathwomb - Moonless Night Sacraments {2019}
- Disembowel [CHL] - Plagues and Ancient Rites {2017}
- Disharmony [GRE] - Messe de minuit [EP] {2019}
- Divine Ecstasy - Strange Passions [EP] {2018}
- Dodenbezweerder - Vrees de toorn van de wezens verscholen achter majestueuze vleugels {2020}
- Drowning The Light - A Gleam In The Eye Of Set & World Devourer [Compilation] {2022}
- Drowning The Light - Oceans Of Eternity [Re-Release] {2023}
- Drowning The Light - The Longing [Compilation / Re-Release] {2023}
- Embrace Of Thorns - Scorn Aesthetics {2018}
- Embrace Of Thorns - The Pantheon I [EP] {2022}
- Eosphoros - Eosphoros {2018}
- Finis – Visions of Doom [EP] {2018}
- Folteraar - Vertellingen van een donkere eeuw {2016}
- Front – Antichrist Militia [EP] {2020}
- Goatkraft - Angel Slaughter [EP] {2018}
- Goatkraft - Sulphurous Northern Bestiality {2019}
- Goatkraft – Prophet Of Eternal Damnation {2023}
- Grabunhold - Unter dem Banner der Toten [EP] {2019}
- Grabunhold - Heldentod {2021}
- Grabunhold / Circle Of Shadows – Lamentationen [Split] {2023}
- Grave Spirit - The Beast Unburdened By Flesh [EP] {2018}
- Graves - Liturgia da Blasfémia {2019}
- Gravfraktal - Unhallowed Death Triumph [EP] {2020}
- Hagzissa - They Ride Along {2019}
- Hanghedief - Overduyvelsche Boosheit [EP] {2022}
- Hellehond – Verslonden {2019}
- Hellvetron - Trident of Tartarean Gateways {2019}
- Horn - Retrograd [EP] {2018}
- House of Atreus - From the Madness of Ixion {2018}
- Hulder - Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry {2021}
- Ill Omen - The Grande Usurper [EP] {2018}
- In Grief - An Eternity Of Misery {2022}
- Infernal Conjuration - Infernale Metallum Mortis {2019}
- Infernal Curse – Revelations Beyond Insanity {2023}
- Invocation [CHL] - The Mastery of the Unseen [EP] {2018}
- Invocation [CHL] - Attunement to Death [EP] {2020}
- Invocation - The Archaic Sanctuary (Ritual Body Postures) {2024}
- Ithaqua - The Black Mass Sabbath Pulse [7”] {2016}
- Jordablod - The Cabinet of Numinous Song {2020}
- Katavasia - Invoking The Spirit Of Doom [EP] {2021}
- Kawir - Αδράστεια {2019}
- Kerasfóra - Denn die Todten Reiten Schnell [Demo] {2021}
- Khthoniik Cerviiks - Æequiizoiikum {2020}
- Lord Belial - The Wrath Of Belial [Compilation / Re-Release] {2022}
- Luring – Triumphant Fall Of The Malignant Christ {2023}
- Malakhim - Demo I [Demo] {2018}
- Malakhim – II [EP] {2019}
- Malakhim - Theion {2021}
- Malsanctum – Malsanctum {2018}
- Melan Selas - Ῥέον {2018}
- Messe De Minuit – Invocation [Demo] {2024}
- Messe Mortuaire - Nocturnal Demonic Visitation [EP] {2022}
- Mistcavern - Into Twilight [EP] {2022}
- Morbid Cruelty – Holodomor {2021}
- Musmahhu - Formulas of Rotten Death [EP] {2018}
- Musmahhu - Reign of the Odious {2019}
- Mutilate - Tormentium {2018}
- Mutilate - Contagium {2019}
- Mysteria Mystica Aeterna - The Temple of Eosphoros {2022}
- Nagel - Hel op Aarde [EP] {2022}
- Naked Whipper - Moloch-Acid Orgy / 7" [Re-Release] {2022}
- Naked Whipper - Painstreaks [Re-Release] {2022}
- Necrobode - Sob o Feitiço do Necrobode {2020}
- Necrobode / Nadsvest - Ustoličenje smrti / O Triunfo da Morte [Split] {2021}
- Necroholocaust [CAN] - Laudem Antichristus [EP] {2018}
- Nekromanteion – The Sinister Flame [Demo / Re-Release] {2024}
- Nexul - Scythed Wings of Poisonous Decay [EP] {2020}
- Omnipotence - Praecipitium {2018}
- Ophidian – Descent Into The Labyrinth [EP] {2024}
- Order Of The Nameless Ones - Utter to Me the Word of Wrath {2018}
- Os – Tehom {2022}
- Pa Vesh En - A Ghost [EP] {2018}
- Pa Vesh En – Church of Bones {2018}
- Pa Vesh En / Temple Moon - Pa Vesh En / Temple Moon [Split] {2018}
- Pa Vesh En - Cryptic Rites of Necromancy [EP] {2019}
- Pa Vesh En – Pyrefication {2019}
- Pa Vesh En - Maniac Manifest {2021}
- Pa Vesh En - Martyrs {2023}
- Perverticon - Wounds of Divinity {2019}
- Pestilength – Demo MMXIX [Demo] {2019}
- Possession - 1585 1646 [EP] {2015}
- Possession / Venefixion - Passio Christi Part II / Necrophagous Abandon [Split] {2019}
- Venefixion - A Sigh from Below {2021}
- Profanation – Skull Crushing Violence [EP] {2024}
- Putrifier - Præcidistis Regeneratio [EP] {2023}
- Reaper [SWE] – Unholy Nordic Noise {2020}
- Reaper - The Atonality of Flesh {2021}
- Ringarë – Under Pale Moon {2019}
- Ritualization - Hema Ignis Necros [EP] {2022}
- Runespell - Order Of Vengeance {2018}
- Runespell - Voice Of Opprobrium {2019}
- Runespell / Forest Mysticism - Wandering Forlorn [Split] {2020}
- Runespell - Verses In Regicide {2021}
- Runespell - Sentinels Of Time [EP] {2022}
- Runespell – Shores Of Náströnd {2023}
- Runespell – Wells Of Slidhr [Demo] {2023}
- Sacrocurse - Gnostic Holocaust {2018}
- Sanctifying Ritual - Sanctifying Ritual {2020}
- Scythe Lore - Through the Mausoleums of Man [EP] {2019}
- Serpent Spawn - Crypt of Torment [EP] {2022}
- Skelethal - Deathmanicvs Revelation [EP] {2014}
- Slægt - Beautiful and Damned [EP] {2015}
- Sørgelig - Devoted to Nothingness [EP] {2019}
- Summon [POR] - Parazv Il Zilittv {2018}
- Temple Desecration - Whirlwinds of Fathomless Chaos {2018}
- Temple Nightside – Recondemnation {2018}
- Temple Nightside - Pillars of Damnation {2020}
- Temple of the Beast - Geminian Arcana [EP] {2024}
- Terror Oath - Terror Oath [Demo] {2019}
- Tetragrammacide - Typho-Tantric Aphorisms from the Arachneophidian Qur'an {2023}
- Tezcatlipoca - Tlayohualtlapelani {2018}
- The Fog - Perpetual Blackness {2016}
- The Gates Of Sinn - The Great Sabbath [Demo] {2019}
- The Rite - The Brocken Fires [EP] {2018}
- The Rite - Liturgy Of The Black {2020}
- The Rite - The Astral Gloom {2023}
- Trajeto de Cabra - Supreme Command of Satanic Will {2019}
- Trance of the Undead - Chalice of Disease {2021}
- Trolldom - Av gudars ätt... {2022}
- Trolldom - I nattens sken (Genom hemligheternas dunkel) {2022}
- Tyrannic - Mortuus Decadence {2021}
- Ulvdalir - …Of Death Eternal {2019}
- Unaussprechlichen Kulten - Teufelsbücher {2019}
- Unaussprechlichen Kulten - Häxan Sabaoth {2024}
- Vaamatar - Medievalgeist {2022}
- Valaraukar - Demonian Abyssal Visions {2019}
- Varathron / Ungod - Apocalyptic Mysticism [Split] {2022}
- Vassafor - To the Death {2020}
- Veiled - Black Celestial Orbs {2018}
- Verberis - Vexamen {2016}
- Verbum - Exhortation to the Impure {2022}
- Vitriol [GER] – Chrysalis [EP] {2019}
- Vomit Angel - Imprint of Extinction {2019}
- Vøidwomb - Altars of Cosmic Devotion [EP] {2021}
- Wampyrinacht - Night of the Desecration {2022}
- Weregoat - The Devil's Lust [EP] {2022}
- Weregoat / Eggs of Gomorrh - Orgiastic Rape Of Resurrected Remains [Split] {2022}
- White Nights - Into the Lap of the Ancient Mother [EP] {2020}
- Witchbones - The Seas of Draugen {2019}
- Worm - Gloomlord {2020}
News
- Crucifier to unleash new album via Iron Bonehead Productions: "'Led Astray' is a masterclass in memorable, metal riffing and twisted rhythmic thrust." {February 13, 2024}
- Infernal Curse to release third album via Iron Bonehead Productions: "Once again, the Argentinians both embody and defy the bestial metal paradigm, and harken back to the earliest expulsions from mid '80s South America" {May 2, 2023}
- Iron Bonehead announced new Invocation album: "Upon first blush, thankfully, very little has changed in the Chileans' sound; restless, roiling, and most definitely RIPPING..." {July 23, 2024}
- Iron Bonehead Productions and Heresiarch team up for second album: "...Heresiarch sound as martial as ever, but the lava now flows in palatably unique ways, all without compromising their core aesthetic." {February 20, 2024}
- Iron Bonehead Productions and The Rite ready to unleash second album: "The black bells toll more ominously than ever, the veil between worlds begins to open...step forth into The Astral Gloom!" {June 12, 2023}
- Iron Bonehead Productions announces Azathoth's Dream's debut album: 'Either way, one listen to the aptly titled 'Nocturnal Vampyric Bewitchment' and one will be indeed bewitched by the band's melancholic-yet-feral spell...or duly repulsed by it.' {October 9, 2023}
- Iron Bonehead Productions presents new Luring album: "...Luring render their third full-length a never-belabored masterclass in Black Metal both authentically ancient and refreshingly modern" {October 19, 2024}
- Iron Bonehead Productions ready to release Ancient Guard's debut release: "While Runespell's no-less-grandiose sound is oft given to bouts of bloodlust and battle rage, Ancient Guard is pure magisterial march & might as can be expected of such a moniker." {April 16, 2024}
- Iron Bonehead Productions ready to release Deathless Void's debut album: "...on 'The Voluptuous Fire of Sin', there's a palpably late '90s feel in both songwriting and production, such that one could psychically slot the album among the No Fashion Records roster back then" {July 19, 2024}
- Iron Bonehead Productions to release debut EP of Kaal Nagini: "Cruel and martial and overwhelming, Kaal Nagini's Death Metal aims for oblivion and promptly delivers the listener there..." {February 14, 2023}
- Iron Bonehead Productions to release Goatkraft's new album: "Goatkraft carry that sulfurous torch with their second full-length, delivering detonating screeds of grinding, expulsive black filth" {September 4, 2023}
- Iron Bonehead Productions to release Sever's debut album: "Straightforward, to be sure, but never simplistic, Sever's onward-and-spaceward thrust overwhelms and then hypnotizes..." {February 20, 2023}
- Luring's new album to be released by Iron Bonehead Productions: "One could variously point contemporaneously early Abigor and Gorgoroth as equally as turn-of-the-millennium Nocternity and Lunar Aurora..." {July 10, 2023}
- Moon Incarnate's debut album to be released by Iron Bonehead Productions: "...Moon Incarnate's sound was born out of love for the early works of the Peaceville Three - Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema..." {January 22, 2024}
- Profanation's debut EP announced by Iron Bonehead Productions: "Like the unholy offspring of Hadez and Necrovore with more than a hint of the eldritch grind of Terrorizer and England's Doom..." {March 1, 2024}
- Runespell to release 'Shores of Nastrond' via Iron Bonehead Productions: "Simply put, this is Pagan Black Metal perfection, from an entity that seemingly already perfected it." {June 10, 2023}
- Temple of the Beast and Iron Bonehead Productions team up to release debut EP: "...oft-lumbering ritualism that slithers its way into hammering primitivism, recalling the earliest works of Samael, Mystifier, Demoncy, and 'Drawing Down the Moon'-era Beherit..." {March 4, 2024}
- Tomb from Malysia to release new EP via Iron Bonehead Productions: "Here on 'The Dark Subconscious' do Tomb go even more primitive..." {May 1, 2023}
- Unaussprechlichen Kulten finishes 6th album, Iron Bonehead Productions ready to release 'Häxan Sabaoth': "For however "pure" and primordial Unaussprechlichen Kulten's Death Metal is, there's' daresay a newfound grace across 'Häxan Sabaoth'..." {November 27, 2023}
