Alastor - Slave To The Grave

2018 release. Alastor hearken to the days when heavy rock was the music of the rebel, the occult adherent and lurker in the shadows, not hipster bros. Theirs is the doom sound for those who discovered it on the edge of town, in the cold rain, perhaps, as an escape from the squares who'll never understand. Drenched in heavy, distorted darkness and steeped in occult horror that will make your skin crawl and ears cry sweet tears of blood, Slave To The Grave pulls no punches in the Swedish band's unabashedly bleak themes. The band formed under a bad moon in 2016, consisting of Dharma Gheddon (vocals, bass, acoustic guitar and organ), Lucy Ferian on lead & acoustic guitar and organ, Terry Fying on guitar and Levi Athan on drums. The quartet released it's epic three-song debut album Black Magic in early 2017 via Twin Earth Records, followed by the two-track Blood On Satan's Claw EP on Halloween the same year. Joining forces with Riding Easy Records in 2018, they hunkered down to summon this seven-track hateful gospel with engineer Magnus Sörensen. "It's an album that circles around the concept of death," explains lead guitarist Lucy Ferian. "It's about death in both it's spiritual and personal meaning-how death is a part of our everyday life. How it affects our thoughts and actions. How some of us spend our entire life in fear of death, while some seek it. But no matter how you live your life and no matter what you achieve here on this earth. You are still just a slave to the grave."