Grave Pleasures
Dreamcrash
Sony Music
Release Date: 4 September 2015
Review by Salla Harjula
Melancholy. Yes, Scandinavians know how it works.
From the ashes of Beastmilk, Grave Pleasures rise and deliver an album at least as gothically dreamlike and undeniably danceable as Climax. Or maybe those qualifiers should be the other way around: there’s a tendency towards catchier melodies and a more polished sound here.
So maybe the punk aspect of the trademark post-punk sound is ever so slightly muted in favour of pop gloom reveries. Nothing wrong with that. Dreamcrash carries me back to my days as a teenage indie missy, daydreaming to Interpol and Editors.
The band’s single choices reflect this new direction. Both New Hip Moon and Crying Wolves are of the moody but groovily swinging variety.
Grave Pleasure might lose some of their metal fans with Dreamcrash, as this kind of almost painfully cool indie hauteur does tend to annoy the heavy oriented crowd. But let’s hope not. It’s a lot of eerie fun, this album.