Heavy Metal is a marvellous thing, and many credit it’s invention to Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath many decades ago. There is a little bit of Sabbath in every rock and metal act of today, even if it’s only in spirit. Sweden‘s The Graviators however, are not shy about showing their love for Black Sabbath. Their whole sound is built around the feeling and vibe of the 70’s and the great heavy bands that emerged during that decade. Of course, they are not the first band to have one foot firmly planted in the seventies, and with the greatest respect, they are probably not the best of the current crop. Bands like Electric Wizard and Witchsorrow are currently peddling doom of the finest calibre in our underground metal scene, where bands like Rival Sons and Orchid recreate the hard rock side of things with great success.

However, there is the old stance of “if it ain’t broke, then don’t try and fix it”; which is why bands like The Graviators will always be welcomed along with open arms.

The album cover sets out what this band are about perfectly with a typical space/stoner peice of artwork. There’s a pentagram, horned creatures and women, wispy ghost like figures all set on an extraterrestrial landscape. Quite cool really, looks free from any CGI and is defintley in keeping with the rock worlds love of imagry and album covers.

The Graviators have an authentic 70’s sounds thanks to the production. There’s a fair amount of fuzz which is vital to any stoner band, and this even gives a promo MP3 a bit of a warm feeling. Then there is the music itself of course. The rhythm section swirls around itself beautifully, rather than the bass and drums replicating each other, allowing a real space rock atmosphere to develop. Vocally, well there’s the obvious slighlty demented influence of Mr Osbourne. It’s uptempo Ozzman though, think ‘Never Say Die’ rather than ‘Iron Man‘, and generally just a good classic rock voice.

Songs like ‘Forlorn’, ‘Evil Deeds‘ and in particular ‘A Different Moon‘ most certainly hark back to Sabbath. There are other influences on display though. ‘Presence’ has a particulalry spacey theme running through it that almost gets proggy at times, and the songs are all very well constructed with some great air guitar-inducing solos throughout. The album just flows like a dream for 45 minutes towards the final heaviest track:’The Infidel’.

‘Evil Deeds‘ was never supposed to break into any new territory. If every band tried to do something new with every record, Heavy Metal would lose it’s identity within months. The fact that Heavy Metal is still around and still as healthy as ever is thanks to bands like The Graviators. This album is a great addition to the ever growing legacy of great downtuned guitar bands everywhere,

Good Stuff!

7.5/10

‘Evil Deeds’ is out 03-09-2012 on Napalm Records.

Rob W