American metallers The Acacia Strain recently released their eighth studio album Gravebloom, and it appears to be business as usual for the plucky band.

By Jane Howkins

First track Worthless is one of the few stand out tracks, pulling you straight into the madness, with a sludgy riff and hoarse vocals giving off an incredibly intense vibe. If there’s one thing The Acacia Strain do well, it’s intensity, and this album has that in spades. The action never really lets up, with the band feeding in strange, arabesque style lead guitar riffs alongside the normal chugging action that one would usually expect from a deathcore band.

Other immediate stand out songs include The Bitter Pill, which almost sounds like a hardcore punk song at first, and Abyssal Depths, which starts off slow, acting as a nice splitting point for the middle of the album, before suddenly bursting into flames as the action heats up. It makes for a nice mix of melodies, and showcases the different strengths the band has.

Unfortunately though, the rhythms start to get repetitive as time goes on. It’s by no means a bad album and fanswill enjoy this, but more experimentation would have been great, especially after the progressions that previous album Coma Witch made.