Blessure Grave, Judged by Twelve, Carried by Six
Blessure Grave , Judged by Twelve, Carried by Six [Alien8 Records]
» Blessure Graves is composed of one spooky dude name T. Grave and one gloomy girl named Reyna Kay, and Mr. Grave sings like Ian Curtis except not really. Still, he manages a slightly better Ian Curtis than the guy from Silk Flowers and the hundreds of other guys singing like Ian Curtis at this very moment.
Here is a band that sounds like a lot of other lo-fi and goth acts that have been moping out the jams over the past 30 years, but they’re doing it slightly better. The influences listed on the band’s MySpace profile are strictly 80s death rock and they stick to this recipe religiously. Again, the dude calls himself Grave.
In the spirit of doing as little as possible to stand out, Judged By Twelve, Carried By Six aims for lo-fi charm but can sound flat and cheap. The minimal approach backfires most egregiously on “A Thousand Drums” whose chorus draws attention to the unhappy reality of Blessure Grave’s percussion section being approximately one drum machine in a guy’s bedroom. A song about a thousand drums deserves at the very least some reverb. I beg Blessure Grave to revisit those Joy Division records' production methods.
It’s supremely unfair to compare any lo-fi / whateverwave act of 2010 to Joy Division, but there’s not much else to talk about. If you haven’t had your fill of bands that sound like Joy Division, Southern California’s got another one for you. Happy moping!
Posted on March 08, 2010
More on: blessure grave, alien8 records
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Do the drums sound like JD? No. Does the bass play high up the fret board ala Peter Hook? Nope. Do the guitar parts bring to mind "Unknown Pleasures" or "Closer"? Not at all. And you've said yourself he doesnt really sound like Ian Curtis, so what gives? Here we have a band not trying to sound like JD, and you're pushing them to do so while trashing them for intentions you aren't even sure they have. Along come good goth bands and here we have critics so in the dark about the genre the best they can do is write them off as clones of the founding band of the genre. Boring.
— Cory on March 24, 2010