Weekly Wretched: She Must Burn - Grimoire

She Must Burn have been creating quite a bit of hype in the metal community since they began teasing their new record "Grimoire." Well, the day of release has finally come and gone, and the question remains as to if the UK-based metal outfit have lived up to the hype of their new release. Grimoire is a dark and melodic collection for sure - but don't let the "melodic" word scare you, the album is definitely heavy and will undoubtedly appeal to fans of bands like (old school) Motionless in White, Cradle of Filth (believe it or not!), and of course the band that they are currently touring the United States with - Carnifex. It appears that She Must Burn have taken their favorite aspects of bands like those mentioned and thrown it all into one giant release, and Grimoire is the product.

I think part of what makes the album so good is the black metal-esque vocal style over the deathcore sound - it just works so fucking well. The rawness in the vocalist is something you don't get a lot of these days with bands doing a lot of producing to the vocals. But She Must Burn definitely let their vocalist have his raw vocals play out, and it sounds perfect for the sound they were going for. Add in the clean vocals and of course, the female vocals (not sure who did them, as I can't seem to find a name anywhere!), and you've got a great combination to make Grimoire a solid release. The musicianship on the album shouldn't be passed up by any metal fan - I think the album will certainly appeal to fans of just metal in general, as long as you can tolerate the occasional clean/female vocals. They certainly don't overpower the album but it's definitely in there. Everybody who knows me knows I'm no fan of cleans or females, but these dudes bring it.

Grimoire hits pretty hard, which is such a great finding since to be honest, I wasn't totally a fan when I saw them live with Carnifex in late February. It was my first time seeing them live, although I wasn't new to their music, and I'm not sure why but it just didn't really do it for me. But in all fairness it could have just been an off day for the dudes in She Must Burn. Regardless, I thought the bands EP was dope and Grimoire is a great follow-up to a great EP. Honestly, it's different than a lot of what is out there now, and if you are not particularly a fan of Motionless in White's new sound, you absolutely must give She Must Burn a try, because they no doubt have the same feel that MIW back when Creatures came out. Grimoire is a great addition to my collection and will certainly be on my rotation for a long time to come!

"Gloom" (which features Sean Harmanis from Make Them Suffer) is my personal favorite off Grimoire, so check this song and video out, and if you dig it, check out the band on Facebook or buy a copy of the album!