Review by Dominik on October 21, 2025.

Finland. The land of a thousand lakes. The country where black metal bands multiply faster than mosquitoes in July. This place is also officially one of the happiest countries in the world. What is impressing as the sun disappears for nearly half the year, yet people still manage to smile. Probably because they can scream their seasonal depression into a microphone. Out of this mystic and striking landscape comes Grave With A View. So, the table is laid, the candlelight flickers, and we, the curious listeners, sit patiently, waiting for the curtain to rise.

But my dear friends, you may want to hold on to something sturdy now. Grave With A View sounds many things — but Finnish is not one of them. What they serve up is a heavy mid-tempo hammering, with riffs that in parts could easily find their place on a solid death metal record. We find fast bursts of violence which punctuate the songs like stab wounds. Then there is the vocalist… well, listening to him is like testing how much physical discomfort you can endure before you start negotiating with higher powers. Add to this at times a faint scent of obscure French black metal, and you're close to the band's sonic coordinates. However, after countless listens, I am still not sure whether I actually like this record, merely respect the artistic endeavor, or have entirely misunderstood the ritual. Let me try to bring order to my written chaos.

The album opens with its two strongest tracks — which, as hindsight usually proves, is never the smartest choice. The opener "Cold Flesh Peregrination" and "The Lash" are both straightforward and convincing. They balance gripping fast passages with mid-tempo sections that sound, at times, almost black'n'roll-ish — the kind of groove that waltzes over you like a very enthusiastic steamroller. Even some timid keyboard lines appear in the opener, and surprisingly, they're less irritating than the vocal performance. And here lies again the classic black metal problem: finding a frontman who sounds possessed in a charming way without making the listener wish for earplugs. There's no question he gives it his all — and possibly some of his future medical insurance — but receiving a certificate from your local ENT doctor for "severe vocal cord trauma" isn't exactly a badge of honor. Thankfully, the musical backbone of these opening tracks is strong enough to compensate for this shortcoming.

So, we're still at this fictional table, probably congratulating ourselves (as I did), that our impeccable search algorithm worked very well, and we discovered another promising band. But up to track seven, "Tail Swallower", the material in between simply doesn't fully convince. The overall approach remains, but the emphasis shifts even more toward intensity at the expense of speed. The title track "Raw Illumination" attempts to lure you in with its hypnotic riffing, and it works in parts. Yet just as you start to drift into its flow, awkward transitions jolt you awake; like dozing off on the couch only to be rudely awakened by a neighbor pounding on your door, furious about your dog baptizing their bonsai tree. And this is where the difference to the album's beginning becomes painfully clear. Early on, everything sounded cohesive; later, a patchwork feeling creeps in. And did I mention the vocalist is a challenge? Yes, I did. And I will again. He still sounds like someone trying to summon demons using only dental floss and lung capacity. Listening to "To The Beat Of Broken Bones", one would expect something bone-dry, sinister, and cutting. Instead, we get shrieks that might shatter glass but leave bones entirely intact. It's less bone-shattering than nerve-shredding.

Thankfully, with "Loathe" the band shows again that they understand the fundamental principles of black metal. Something resembling atmosphere meets well-measured aggression, melodic riffs wrestle with the vocal chaos which is accentuated by some clean background vocals, and the tempo variations feel intentional rather than accidental. And then comes the album's last standout "Tail Swallower", where everything clicks as it should. The double-bass driven groove makes an immediate impact, while the death metal-tinged guitar work gives the song real weight. Here, everything blends together seamlessly and delivers the cohesion that the middle section was in parts gasping for.

In the end, "Raw Illumination" lives up to its name. It is indeed raw (especially the vocals — dear lord, the vocals) and it illuminates another corner of our beloved subgenre black metal: one where aggression takes precedence over elegance, and riffs reign supreme over atmosphere. The band hits hard, though occasionally misses its mark with the enthusiasm of a drunk archer. It's not a perfect record, but it has ambition, and I like this distinct refusal to be just another faceless black metal release from the North. This is of course not a bad album (I mean it still originates from Finland), but at the same time it is not quite what I expected when I sat down at that metaphorical Finnish wooden table.

Rating: 7.6 out of 10, because even if this release is missing the bullseye, it doesn't mean the arrow didn't hit flesh.