{"id":399132,"date":"2026-04-18T19:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399132\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T19:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:21:09","slug":"graufar-via-necropolis-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399132\/","title":{"rendered":"Graufar – Via Necropolis Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Without question, Friday is my favorite day of the week. Even more tantalizing than the conclusion to an often grueling gauntlet of meetings, feedback, and GSD, I\u2019m blessed with metal\u2019s new releases. Trying to listen to everything that comes out is a fool\u2019s errand\u2014luckily, I\u2019m a fool. During one of my customary Friday excursions, fortune smiled upon me when I stumbled onto Graufar\u2019s sophomore opus, Via Necropolis. As I listened, the album\u2019s grooves, riffs, and passions bathed me in blackened deathly glory. My luck persisted through the morning\u2014Graufar\u2019s promo still lurked unclaimed in the bin. Yoink! Though I discovered Via Necropolis late, I was powerless to resist the call of a review, especially given the band\u2019s unsigned\/independent status. Thus saddled with an unplanned bit of writing and a pocketful of tunes, let us sojourn down Necropolis way.<\/p>\n

Too many blackened death metal bands present a mixed bag of half-measures. To me, the peak allure of the subgenre promises the brutality and technicality of death metal united with black metal\u2019s icy atmospherics and raw aesthetics. The quintessentially boilerplate BDM band brews a tepid concoction featuring a death metal base with black metal spices; fortunately, Graufar averts getting mired in pedestrian trappings. Honing a sound established on debut Scordalus, Via Necropolis flaunts chilly trems, grating rasps, and a coat of corpse paint that betrays their blackened heart, and it beats with the blood of Dissection<\/a>, Necrophobic<\/a>, and Rimfrost<\/a>. Death metal\u2019s influence is more subtle, skulking in chugging grooves and vicious growls that blend in seamlessly.<\/p>\n

\ufeffVia Necropolis by Graufar<\/a><\/p>\n

Though Graufar\u2019s performances across Via Necropolis merit praise, vocalist Gernot Graf deserves special recognition. His scathing vocals loose misery and malevolence that arouse a primal reflex, making my throat twinge at the thought of snarling along. Tracks like \u201cBlizzard and Blaze\u201d and \u201cFoltertrog\u201d exhibit Graf\u2019s penchant for wringing out every ounce of emotion, from vitriol to agony. Black metal rasps aren\u2019t his only trick, though. Graf roars with an insatiable fire on \u201cCharon\u201d and \u201cBuried in Flames,\u201d devolving into bestial throes within \u201cHeralds of Doom\u201d and \u201cVia Necropolis\u201d and ensuring that his versatile performance never lacks conviction or fervor. Graf also plays guitar alongside Michael Herber, and together they fashion a glittering heap of licks, leads, and grooves. And it\u2019s the latter that stands out the most, because while death metal regularly brandishes them, black metal rarely deigns to approve the groove. Meanwhile, \u201cBuried in Flames\u201d and \u201cOn Your Knees\u201d demonstrate Graufar\u2019s shrewd understanding of songwriting, and bolstered by Thomas Buchmeier\u2019s slinky bass and Ren\u00e9 Hinum\u2019s precision drumming, Via Necropolis positively thrums.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Throughout Via Necropolis, Graufar dazzles with their ability to conjure dynamic arrangements informed by influences. Kicking off with a Dissection-coded intro on \u201cBlizzard and Blaze,\u201d Graufar mingles with mellow cleans, slithers through second-wave savagery reminiscent of Mayhem<\/a>, and even dabbles in throat-singing before ending back on the cleans. \u201cHeralds of Doom\u201d features a fiery solo that cedes to a pit-ready sway, \u201cVia Necropolis\u201d starts with a sleek Necrophobic<\/a>-meets-Watain<\/a> riff that builds to a doomy chorus played over rabid trems, and \u201cOn Your Knees\u201d bashes you in the face with a potent Sepultura groove. Despite Graufar\u2019s administration of reference points galore, they never linger overlong on any one. The songwriting is deceptively understated, and although this works in Graufar\u2019s favor as a whole, over repeated listens I find my engagement more attuned to Via Necropolis\u2019s back half. Reordering the tracks (\u201cBuried in Flames\u201d would make a fantastic opener) and slightly trimming the longer ones would add an immediacy that brings some of the back-end boom up front.<\/p>\n

All told, Graufar delivers a vibrant outing that boasts a refreshing take on blackened death teeming with wonderfully wicked ideas. Via Necropolis sizzles throughout its forty-two minutes and distinguishes the band as an act to watch. Considering both Graufar\u2019s albums have been released independently, the band displays remarkable song craft and self-editing, and Via Necropolis gleams with talented musicians who forge well-crafted metal bangers. Better late than never, I\u2019m glad this gem didn\u2019t slip by.<\/p>\n

Rating: Very Good!
DR: NA | Format Reviewed: WAV
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Website<\/a> | Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: March 20th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Without question, Friday is my favorite day of the week. Even more tantalizing than the conclusion to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4155,17047,101059,26973,45815,12564,36062,146,189248,85,46,159773,6681,409,189249,1529,1530,17060,13168,162837,108851,189250,36075],"class_list":{"0":"post-399132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-4155","9":"tag-3-5","10":"tag-austrian-metal","11":"tag-black-metal","12":"tag-blackened-death-metal","13":"tag-death-metal","14":"tag-dissection","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-graufar","17":"tag-il","18":"tag-israel","19":"tag-mar26","20":"tag-mayhem","21":"tag-music","22":"tag-necrophobic","23":"tag-review","24":"tag-reviews","25":"tag-rimfrost","26":"tag-self-released","27":"tag-self-releases","28":"tag-sepultura","29":"tag-via-necropolis","30":"tag-watain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}