Introducing: Grave Of Sacrifice

Newcomers Grave Of Sacrifice offer a taste of the exciting Mexican death metal scene with an aggressive sonic attack built around high-speed rhythms, intense vocals and heavy riffs.

The quintet hail from Mérida, the capital city of the state of Yucatán in southeastern Mexico, and knew each other from previous projects and the Mérida metal scene. But the Grave Of Sacrifice project began in April 2021, with guitarist Braulio Díaz Novelo wanting to dive into the darker realms of death metal. And he set about creating a band by bringing in Angel Cervera (vocals), Pablo Caamal (guitars), Cesar Güémez (bass) and Baruch Velazquez (drums).

And on the sound they’ve honed since, Baruch tells us: “We give to the people a straight-in-your-face wall of sound with a lot of character and attitude mixed with speed and well-focused aggression, the one that allows you to carry on and make you get the things done!”

Our first taste of this is two singles released earlier this year. Debut track Blind Maze starts with lively guitars that feed into a bouncy riff and intense drums. Cool palm-muted guitars set up a powerful opening verse led by vicious vocals supported by chugging guitars. A big chorus is supported by a really cool bass lick and ends on a big “bleugh” noise, then heavy guitars and drums lead into another verse.

Second-time around, the chorus drops into light bass, drums and spoken vocals, which explode into gruff screams and chugging guitars then rolling drums. Then, out of nowhere, a wild guitar solo bursts into life and gives way to a huge outro. Check it out in the lyric video here:

That was followed by Macron, which takes the heaviness and darkness up a level. It starts out with chunky guitar chords that give way to fast-paced guitar chords and drums supporting vicious vocals. Chugging guitars kick in then a cool little bass lick and searing guitars support a dark riff and more intense vocals through the chorus.

A second chorus drops into bouncy guitars and huge vocals, which give way to a fun piercing guitar solo, which feeds into a final blast of the heavy chorus. Check it out here:

Those two singles prepare us for the band’s debut EP Land Of Decay, which is out next Friday (18 November). On the EP, Baruch told us: “We are very thrilled and really can’t wait to release our music to the world. It has been a long road since we first started talking about making some new music and now, just a few days before the global release of Land of Decay, honestly we feel overwhelmed but confident as we think the people out there will enjoy or, at least, give it a try.”

The Grave Of Sacrifice sound has been influenced by a wide range of sounds and genres, including basslines taken from Afro-Caribbean rhythms fused with heavier guitar influences and harsh vocal growls. And they narrow down key influences to bands like Death, Decapitated, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Morbid Angel, The Faceless, Pantera, Lamb of God, Metallica, Rush, Testament, Atheist, Gojira and Septic Flesh.

And on what inspires their music, Baruch tells us: “Our main lyricist Ángel writes about a lot of stuff. But he mainly writes about the mind and the soul and the eternal struggle between the different ideas and points of view that make our society such a diverse, and sometimes difficult, environment – especially in Mexico, which is a beautiful, beautiful country with a sad and corrupt history behind it.”

That brings us nicely onto an important topic, metal in Mexico, which we’ll admit to not knowing a great deal about – given this is only the third Mexican band we’ve met. As Baruch explains: “We want the people out there to know about the recent death metal scene in Mexico. The Mexican metal scene is a monster. More and more bands emerge from every corner of our country, some of them are really good, very competitive, with exceptional musicians that can rival any musician from any other country without a doubt!

“Unfortunately, in Mexico, we have this idiosyncratic thing we call ‘malinchismo.’ It means that we as Mexicans prefer anything that’s made in the USA or Europe or any other country, no matter if it is something bad or low-quality, before picking something made in Mexico. Fortunately, and because of all these new bands, the Mexican metal scene is thriving and we feel honoured to be a part of it.

“We know for a fact that every day more and more people organize concerts and festivals in Sinaloa, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Mexico City and more. They work hard to get venues and to book high-quality bands and we as a novel band, thank them for their work and effort!”

Indicators of the growth of the Mexican metal scene are Monterrey’s Mexico Metal Fest, one of the most important metal festivals in Latin America that’s taking place today and yesterday, and Hell and Heaven Festival, which will be held in Toluca on 2-4 December and has a great lineup headlined by Slipknot. Grave Of Sacrifice’s Braulio Díaz will be performing at this year’s Hell and Heaven Festival with his side-project Hate Ritual, a powerful more groove-oriented metal act also from Mérida. And the band advises us all to go and check their music out too!

Grave Of Sacrifice’s debut EP Land Of Decay is out next Friday (18 November) and they hope to follow that up with their first album next year. They also hope to book gigs around Mexico next year to become an active part of the country’s thriving metal scene. And we’re excited to see how both the band and the metal scene flourish – so if you’re also in a Mexican band, get in touch!

And Baruch adds: “We really hope you all metalheads out there like our music, our concept, we gave our heart and soul in the making of this EP and believe us when we tell you ‘thanks’ for listening to our music. And finally, as I like to say, quoting the all-mighty Chuck Schuldiner: Support music, not rumours!”

You can follow Grave Of Sacrifice on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.