In Grief - An Eternity of Misery 2LP
In Grief - 'An Eternity of Misery' 2LP
Double LP edition on black vinyl in gatefold sleeve
The 2022 full-length debut of Italy's IN GRIEF - and a grander debut statement one will not find. The formula is fairly simple - doom in form and content, death metal in execution, both crushing and crushingly somber - but the poignancy put forth through these eight odes to despair (and two equally heartstrings-pulling instrumentals) is powerful enough to penetrate even the most recalcitrant of souls. Lead lines soar with majesty and memorability, but where they "soar" is inversely an abyss of the soul; the effect is no less cleansing and cathartic. Like much/most melodically inclined doom-death, the spectre of "the Peaceville Three" - My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, and Anathema - looms large here, but one can equally detect trace elements of the earliest works of Katatonia, The Gathering, and especially Tiamat's pivotal Clouds. Which is all to say that IN GRIEF have honed in on an oft-done but rarely perfected idiom, and also including the band's sterling sense of space and dynamics, it's not remiss to suggest that An Eternity of Misery indeed seems perfected.
