Graveyard's self-titled debut was decent, but it really wasn't until Hisingen Blues that defined a sound for themselves. But Lights Out?
...well, that's in a completely different league.
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Album: Lights Out
Band: Graveyard
Year Released: 2012
Genre: Hard Rock
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The most important thing for any band to have is togetherness. If the parts don't align, the song sounds bad - it's just that simple. In classical ensembles the way this is done is to look at the director, but what happens when there is no director? When jazz groups began to form, the term "get into a groove" began to emerge as a means of teaching people how to listen to the musicians around them and feel the beat internally.
To say Graveyard gets in a groove is a harsh understatement. When listening to their music, the precision can almost be felt by listeners. Obviously every good band has to have their members play together, but not too many are better at it than these guys. If there were one word to describe every song on this album, it would be precise.
The album opens up with The Industry Of Murder, a song that starts with a siren resembling an ambulance siren, but slowed down. On top of that the song begins to build, adding a basic guitar riff, some drums, and a few other nice features until the first verse begins. The second that verse begins, the band locks into place and just keeps on moving. It is nearly impossible to not tap a foot to this song when it really rocks.
After listening to this album over and over, the first song has an interesting quirk: the tempo of the first verse is slightly faster than the opening. It's strange and it's likely a mistake on the drummer's part, but the band makes it sound intentional. It could have been fixed in post-production, however it's really not that important and doesn't really hurt the song.
The second song, Slow Motion Countdown, locks in really nicely at a slower tempo. It's simpler than the other songs on the album, but it still works. It is a bit hard to appreciate this one, when the Swedish accent makes the lyrics a bit hard to decipher. This song is one only two times in the album where the lyrics are really hard to make out at times, which is impressive for a foreign band. It also is placed oddly, as a slower song would normally be more towards the middle of the album. It's still a good song, but not too memorable.
Seven Seven suddenly picks up the pace again and doesn't lets the tempo or dynamic fall even a little. It just goes, and it's great for it! It never feels boring, it never overstates its welcome, and it is a great song. The lyrics are pretty good too. This would be a much better second song than what they went with. In fact, if this and "Slow Motion Countdown" were swapped, it would work out much better.
The album started out decently well, but it doesn't get really good until The Suits, The Law, and the Uniforms. It sits at a nice mid-tempo, and while the song has more focus on singing, the instruments back up the singers very well, and the lyrics are fantastic.
The suits, the law, and the uniforms,
Bringing grieve on the sand patrol,
You know that life was meant for so much more than this,
More than wages, profit, and control.
The song is one of the best on the album. It's just a shame that the best songs aren't being shown off earlier in the album. While "Slow Motion Countdown" was just badly placed, this song is clearly more impressive than "Seven Seven". It's not to say that an album should always have the best songs first, but a listener needs something to keep them listening, and while "Slow Motion Countdown" and "Seven Seven" are both great songs, they just aren't as good as this one.
The best song on the album is Endless Night. Graveyard shows off their ability to stay in a groove best here, and no other song is quite as technical and impressive as this one. The song pushes forward at a faster tempo, and it benefits from it. This song also features a great bridge where the song quiets down and features only the bass playing a simple melody with the lyrics being sung overtop. That part of the song gives the illusion that the band is slowing down, but instead they continue to drive forward, adding more instruments and building up to a great climactic final chorus. The lyrics are really good as well, though admittedly inferior to the preceding track.
I was born to endless night,
All my trying is in vain,
Some people think that I am mad
Because I've thrown away all that I had.
Hard Times Lovin' is another slower track, which was placed well after the fastest, most exciting track. The song still has a hard rock feel, and Graveyard performs it really precisely as always. The lyrics aren't the best, but it still works well. It also picks up in volume towards the end, which makes the song more interesting. A listener would not expect the song to build up as much as it does when the song first starts. It's a good track.
Goliath is where the album starts to pick up again. It plays at a comfortable tempo and rocks pretty hard throughout. When someone says that Graveyard gets into the groove, the best example of that is in this song. The drums, while not overly complicated, are one of the more impressive parts of this song just for the fact that it holds the song together so well. Graveyard's drummer is the epitome of precision. The other parts cannot be ignored, however as the guitar parts are very impressive and, while the lyrics aren't the best, the execution is spot-on. This song just works. Period.
Fool in the End takes the mid-tempo route again. Everything works well in this song except the singing, which occasionally feels a bit out of place. The more clean singing just does not fit with the band as well in this song as it did in the slower songs. The lyrics are also hard to understand in this one, which makes this song a bit hard to really like. This song is the album's weakest.
The closer, 20/20 (Tunnel Vision), takes the slow tempo for a third time, but this time it works really well. "Slow Motion Countdown" and "Hard Times Lovin'" were good tracks, but this song is by far the most memorable of the three. The two singers harmonize really well together in this track, and the guitar call-and-response effect works really well in the background. Like in Goliath, the drums really hold this track together moreso than in some of the other songs. While it doesn't close the album quite as nicely as "The Industry of Murder" opens it up, it still works well as a closer and it's a great slow song on its own.
While not a revolutionary album by any means, Lights Out manages to still be a really good album, despite some odd ordering choices and some weaker tracks. The album has no bad songs, but there are certainly a few that stand above the rest. It's Graveyard's best album by far, and it's one of the best hard rock albums of 2012. It's unlikely that this album will be talked about for years and years to come, however. It would be safe to assume, however, that Graveyard, with their evident precision and talent, will be able to release that revolutionary album in the future.
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Music Sample Video:
<to be added at a later date>
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