Minnesota's GRAVESLAVE are relative newcomers on the Death Metal scene. Having only formed a year ago, the five piece had barely got their demo out before following it up with this, their first EP. Clocking in under twenty minutes, "Corpseborne" shows off some nice technical chops and is entertaining enough to make them worth watching out for in the future. It's not a game changer, but it's far from the worst Death Metal we've heard at Metal Temple and is a good start to what will hopefully be a long career.

Also, we should make it absolutely clear right now: this is Death Metal, not Deathcore. The boundaries between those two genres have become increasingly blurred of late but GRAVESLAVE have definitely taken more from the fetid Florida swamps than they have from Arizona and Southern California. They rarely slow the pace and actually get faster as the EP progresses, the climactic "Surgical Extraction Of The Soul" has an introduction so fast it could outrun Usain Bolt and the final thirty seconds is indescribably manic.

Elsewhere, the likes of "All That I Despise" and "Divine Flesh" are reliably violent outbursts of old school fun. The former especially has a nice malevolent groove in the middle that recalls some of PHIL ANSELMO's nastier side-projects and they won't disappoint anyone looking for brutally heavy sonic extremity. The highlight though is third track "Dissect And Dispose," which manages to be no less vicious than the others, but also shows off the dexterous fingers of the two guitar players. Roman Johnson and Ian Zachary must have rehearsed their scales for months to dart up the fretboards as quickly as they do here.

All of which makes "Corpseborne" an impressive start for GRAVESLAVE. They've given us six tracks of enjoyable metal and while this won't set the world alight, most bands are shit when they first start out and GRAVESLAVE aren't. If they can do this in their first year, the future should be bright indeed. Or at least as bright as gore-soaked evil can get.