GRAVES FOR GODS is a Doom/Death metal band formed in 2020 in Adelaïde (Australia). A passage to the beyond. Through ruins of ancient ceremony. Hymns echoed off stone, beneath grey skies. Monuments to those once worshipped. Now lost like tears to the rain. Their stories revived on a platform of all things Doom. They present "Last Light Fades," their follow up to 2022's debut album retained and enhanced. More violence. More tragedy. More hope. It's is a journey through time. From the birth, rise and fall of the Roman Empire, through to the modern age. It's a masterclass of indoctrination and manipulation. Of the corruption of man through Idolatry and Divinity. To walk blind through dark ages. To roam and rebuild. To rise for the fall. When the last light fades...

The album has five songs, and "Perpetua Fell" is first. It enters with a slow, heavy pace that sounds like the lumbering of a wooly mammoth traversing the icy north. The harsh vocals rattle in guttural tones, as if they come from an old, angry, dying man. There is also a psychedelic quality to some of the music at times, which does set it apart from the typical Doom sound. "The Dark Age" is longest, at just under ten minutes, and both the riffs and vocals are very somber. The Dark Ages were named that for a reason, and that hopelessness is reflected in the music. The sound drags for what seems like days, even weeks and months, and that ache in your stomach is never relieved.

"Unholy Ghost" is a short segue song, connecting the first two songs with the last. The mood is a little lighter, but still within the cast of shadows that falls over the entire album. "Covered in Blood" features a simple riff that is very heavy at the bottom end, even though some leads break into the sky. Again, the gutturals sound like an Ent waking up and muttering to himself, and they are quite angry at times. The extended instrumental passage in the middle furthers some feelings of despondence. It crawls at the end to the finish line. The title track is the final song, and it presents some additional opportunities that the previous songs didn't, especially in the lead work. They carry the song forward through the valleys and over the mountains.

This was an excellent Doom album. For one, the band's vision was not just about long songs with slow, heavy beats, because they also added a flair for the psychedelic at times with lead notes, and even keys. This approach kept the dastardly depressing sound more active to the listener, and this is an album that all Doom fans should take a gander at.