NEDGRAVD – Ascension

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8.0

• Bands:
  NEDGRAVD
• Duration: 00:39:43
• Available from: 05/14/2026
• Label:

• Headsplit Records

There are bands that spend years preparing the ground between demos, EPs and splits, and then there are projects like Nedgravd, which emerge from the depths without any warning and present themselves directly with a complete album. A sudden, almost ghostly appearance, which finds a surprisingly complete manifesto in “Ascension”. Behind the name hide young musicians with some backgrounds in the contemporary Norwegian black metal universe, but here the objective is different: to give shape to an extremely rough and sinister death metal, apparently shapeless, yet crossed by a compositional lucidity that progressively emerges from its blankets of rot.

From the very beginning it is impossible to ignore the gigantic shadow of Infester: more than a simple influence, “To the Depths, in Degradation” seems to constitute the very foundation on which Nedgravd build their proposal. The fleeting formation from Seattle, responsible for one of the most disturbing and visionary albums ever created by American death metal, resurfaces in every corner of “Ascension”: in the viscous textures of the riffs, in the narrative progression of the compositions, in the ability to move from violent rhythmic convulsions to sudden doom collapses without the flow ever being interrupted.

The strength of the album lies precisely in this apparent contradiction: on the one hand the production seems to want to hide any form of elegance under a thick crust of mould, rust and sonic debris; on the other, the work of the guitars reveals a surprising mobility. The riffs wrap around each other like underground roots, they fork, change direction and continually recompose the structure of the songs. It's like observing a very elaborate construction through the murky waters of a swamp: the contours fade away, but the complexity of the architecture remains perceptible.

The seven tracks that make up “Ascension” – five main songs, an interlude and a conclusion with a ritual flavor – therefore function as a single descent into unhealthy territories. Nedgravd recover the entire Infester lexicon and bend it to their own needs, without however transforming the album into a mere exhumation exercise. When the compositions momentarily settle on a more rocky pace, echoes of Incantation and Rottrevore emerge, even if wrapped in the production of Darkthrone from the 1992-1996 period; when the accelerations take over, the record takes on an almost feverish dimension, supported by a percussive system and an extremely guttural growling that seem to want to express an innate sense of might and bestiality.

There is something deeply Norwegian, however, in the way this material is reworked. Not so much in superficial aesthetics, but in the inclination to constantly sabotage the listener's expectations. In this sense, the comparison with Obliteration does not appear out of place. Just as the latter started from the adoration for Autopsy to land in increasingly eccentric and oblique territories, Nedgravd also seem to use the cult of Infester as a starting point rather than a final destination.

The songs extend along tortuous paths, dotted with sudden turns, restarts and mutations. Nothing appears superfluous, yet nothing is made immediately accessible. “Ascension” refuses any shortcut and claims a conception of death metal as an immersive, almost initiatory experience. It's music that doesn't just strike, but deliberately seeks to disorient, drag down and ultimately engulf.

However, behind its mephitic exterior and its ostentatious unpleasantness lies an album of clear ingenuity. A work that challenges the listener without ever losing sight of the writing, transforming apparent disorder into a complete form. In an underground panorama often crushed between nostalgia and mannerism, “Ascension” emerges as a restless and magnetic presence: one of the most intriguing and memorable death metal works of the year.