Sometimes changing musical styles & mainstreaming your music is not the best choice a band can make. GRAVEWORM is one of the bands which turned to a more common, mainstream Death Metal style, sacrificing their 'Gothic' side. A sacrifice not necessarily bad, but costly to the fans that came to know and love GRAVEWORM for their great ability to blend the Black/Death Metal genre with melodic elements. Yet, GRAVEWORM seems like a band that cares about its crowd and attempts to return to their old sound are seen in their new record.
 
GRAVEWORM is an Italian/German band that was formed in Bruneck Italy around 1992. They got their first album out in 1997 called When Daylight's Gone. Together with the first album the following three albums would establish GRAVEWORM as an aggressive Black/melodic Metal band. This melodic darkness found its apex in the album Engraved In Black. The next two albums were different, the melodic part was suppressed to emphasize on more solid Death Metal riffs, that although were more aggressive, they slowly became constant and repetitive.
Diabolical Figures attempts to change the mainstreaming of the last two albums and makes a turn to older sound forms. The aggressive riffs remain but there is an obvious balance between the melodic parts. There is more space for Sabine Mair to deliver her subtle sounds and she does this in a way that aggression and dark melody complement each other in every song of the album, proving also that Sabine's skills are as unique as they are professional.
This complementation of sounds could not be without the distinct voice of Stefano Fiori. A strong tool, able to change with ease between two styles, a deep Death Metal growl and a Black Metal rasp. Stefano, although compared many times to Danny Filth due to vocal similarities, delivers here a more solid and powerful voice, always abstaining from the lyrical extremities of the former.
GRAVEWORM in Diabolical Figures find the silver line that can connect their new sound with the old atmospheric and melodic past, avoiding becoming another 'mainstream' band in the multitude of the Metal scene. The only thing that does not change is the adaptation of a non metal song, which in this album is Message In A Bottle by POLICE.
So, in the end “Diabolical Figures” is a good album, not their best but good enough for new fans to join and old ones to come back.