GRAVE ROBBER - BE AFRAID

Grave Robber had to have a debut disc to follow up on and this one is it! ‘Be Afraid’ was released originally in 2007, but Retroactive have seen fit to re-release this with 2 additional tracks. You can hear Wretched and crew spit it out in all their rigor mortis infested glory.

This release has a bit more of the punk aspect than does their current release ‘Inner Sanctum’ (a strong album of the year candidate for 2009!). Songs like ‘Rigor Mortis,’ ‘Skeletons,’ and ‘I Want to Kill You Over and Over Again’ are just fabulous. Misfits/Danzig inspired punk/metal that really catches you by the throat and digs in deep. These ghostly ghouls just know how to write hooks. In music that is the most important thing to these ears.

The lyrical metaphors to the spiritual life of a follower of the way are simply amazing. ‘Army of The Dead’ is one of those songs that just ‘kills me’…..! I loved the cool intro to ‘Burn, Witch, Burn,’ since I know exactly where it came from. Heck I thought I was the only one who owned that album!!

This special re-release includes one new track and a remix of the amazing ‘Rigor Mortis’ by Angel from Dope. The remix is more a novelty, but their cover of the old Nazareth song ‘Love Hurts’ is really good.

Be Afraid is another superb offering from the Robbers. If you had to choose between this disc and their current release ‘Inner Sanctum’ I would say you can’t lose either way. I myself lean toward ‘Inner Sanctum’ as my favorite of the two yet ‘Be Afraid’ is getting its share of play time.

I understand that the Robber crew filmed a live DVD that should hopefully see the light at some point. Hopefully enough of the songs from this release will make it as well. Living on the West Coast will probably mean that I won’t get a chance to see Grave Robber perform so that DVD will be the next best thing. I should also mention that they have also released a comic book which looks to be very promising, the first issue sets up things rather nicely for the follow-ups….

I still need to obtain some Grave Robber gear, which will come in time. For the GR fan among you Christmas is coming sooner than you think….

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