Following their defacement of auld tombstones scratched in ornate scroll South East Queensland, Australia-based death doom metal trio GROTESQUE BLISS bury their own freshly dead in desecrated ancient crypt on this self-titled debut demo. All corpses steep in the sorrows and savagery of the past as ‘Grotesque Bliss‘ receives an expanded physical release about a year after they’d kicked it old school with a small grip of self-made tapes. Attaining the morbid strafe of early days death and doom with some appreciable authenticity this record quickly justifies its later-on proper issue with big riffs and strictly efficient sound design.

Grotesque Bliss formed circa 2022 between folks active in the Gold Coast/Brisbane-area scenery with vocalist/bassist Bjorn (Grave Upheaval, Temple Nightside), drummer Matt Southcombe (ex-Black Blod) and guitarist/vocalist Chris Burton (ex-Cryptal Darkness/The Eternal, ex-Paramæcium). There is some serious history there and a lot of great bands to link these folks together but the common bond and major goal for this project is ‘old school’ death/doom metal in the spirit of the early 90’s, right on the cusp of the melodic death/doom uprising but dialed back to the post-‘Lost Paradise‘ inspired era of death metal circa 1990-1993. My favorite stuff/contemporaries in that ballpark (Ceremonium, Celestial Season‘s ‘Promises‘, Laceration (Illinois), Sorrow) should at least give you a general idea how straightforward, stripped to pure death/doom this demo generally is.

This release was originally a handmade cassette demo tape (‘Grotesque Bliss‘, 2024) released in June of last year after the band’d put out a couple of rehearsal teasers in the two years leading up to that point. You’ll probably recognize the sludgy post-’95 Morbid Angel rifled riffs that start “God of the Godless” if you’ve checked those rehearsals (‘God of the Godless (Rehearsal 03-10-22)‘, 2022) out and it remains a key piece to set a mournful yet aggressive tone for their gig. They’d also shared a rehearsal version of “Bringeth Death to Life” as its own digital single (‘Bringeth Death to Life (Rehearsal 28-12-22)‘, 2023) and for my own taste this one was well chosen as one of the more representative tracks from the full demo. It is worth checking out those rehearsal versions for the sake of seeing how small details had evolved and how the render of the demo helped to create an exacting vision of old school death/doom metal in an early romanticist style.

The big bonus/unreleased track here is a cover of My Dying Bride‘s “I Am the Bloody Earth”, an outtake from the ‘Turn Loose the Swans‘ sessions that’d end up as its own EP later on. I was curious to see how they’d treated this song in terms of the variety of vocal styles deployed as well as the use of the violin but of course that era of death/doom was more about the twisted/extreme take on doom metal riffcraft and in that sense this ~8 minute version of the song is unsurprisingly focused on the riffs. The way Grotesque Bliss crush through the title track/eponymous opener (“Grotesque Bliss”) cues into this main point of inspiration directly but this record isn’t rote nostalgia or a “worship” band. ‘Grotesque Bliss‘ has riffs and a huge sound, a dry-sludged warmth with an exceptional rhythm guitar tone carrying their old, slowed soul through rhythms which cross warped, hanging high doom metal grooves and death metal embellishment.

Though there are a few Floridian death metal spikes worth noting up front the big deal here for my own taste is thier exact fusion of death and doom metal, a referential basal point which hasn’t been overthought, generally sticking to their most grand rhythmic gestures. The duo of “Old Earth” and “God of the Godless” probably offer the most direct point of fusion in this sense, scratched and chunking rhythms roared into wrathful form. With that in mind the more ornate, cleverly wrought “gothic” doom era peak of their exploration here is probably closer “Slipping Through the Cracks of Grief”. The trade between sinister crawling attack and more thoughtfully strung riffcraft is brilliantly presented, unburdened by all but their most vital functional parts.

Any fan of the niche should appreciate the directness of this recording, the focus on the riff, and the quasi full-length feeling of rolling through. Grotesque Bliss‘ sound definitely deserves a full-length or some manner of iteration if they see fit though I dunno if they’d need to change a thing for my own taste, the ratio of aggression to doom and gloom just about perfect here. A high recommendation.

Iron Bonehead Productions – Welcome

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