Review by Death8699 on December 17, 2018.

This album deserves a high rating due to the originality of the songwriting and aura of a grim, dark music of death. These guys have been around for a while and this brutally raw release does the metal community justice. Tempos vary, nothing overly fast and the production was superb. The guitars raw sounding with heavy distortion that ignites each song. The vocals go well along with the music. The songs are about 4-5 minutes in length and are filled with deathly founded overtures with its own unique riff structure. Everything on here is just amazing. I would give it an even higher rating if the leads were better. There were only a few though.

I'd have to say that Grave plays some pretty gruesome music, not something that you want to listen to on a dark, gloomy, depressing day. They fit that aura with their music. There's no compromise. It's one of my favorites from them since some of their albums aren't so good in the production department. But this one dominates. My contention is that prior releases may have sounded heavier as well as more raw, but still this one is a dominating factor in the discography. I enjoyed every song, hands down.

The things that I loved about this album are the vocals and guitar. I'd have to say that they are a well established Swedish band that simply slays with their guitar frenzies. They're controlled though, not out of control. Some extreme bands go a little overboard in their tempos, Grave keeps it level with not so fast songs and a grim sound to them. They are definitely a part of the dark underground. In my opinion, they've really been underrated and overlooked. But I will say this, many years since its release and I'm still writing about this one.  I was quite impressed and something that never gets old.

Buy the physical CD for this album if you haven't already. Show the band some support, I ordered it after I heard in on digital. I thought to myself "I have to have this album." It's so unique and uncompromising. It's something to play if you feel like hearing grim death metal. I really thought each track had its own unique sound to it. I simply loved the guitar sounds. And the production did it justice which made it much better to listen to. I would suggest this album to any death metal fan. Dominance of an album!

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by JD on March 20, 2009.

The name of this band means 'Tears' in Greek lettering, but the tears that I produced after listing to them are of pure metallic joy. Dakrya just are not a Goth style metal band that is following a trend or anything, they are taking that style and making it all of their own in a gloriously dank fashion.

Sweeping clear vocals from two lovely ladies (Cristina with clean vocals, Thomias - classic vocals) mixed with darkness powered growls (George D) and a complete band that rock as hard as any extreme metallists could, Dakrya is a group of musicians who throws out all of the rules and just get down to dominating each and every note that they put into their debut album. Mixing such diversity of musical influences such as Goth, shadings of 80's Neo-classical and even dredges in the power and darkness of Black Metal.

You have these very haunting lyrics that create universes of unbridled darkness while the heavy yet sweeping majesty of the music brings out the bleak atmosphere of a world that is far flung from our own. Songs like 'Inner Scream' bring thoughts and emotions to the surface that most do not want to cross into while 'Thorns Of Punishment' thunders in your very soul long after the last few notes have long been gone.

To make myself clear... Dakrya is the band that Nightwish wanted to be.... but cannot be!! Even for most extreme of our metal brethren, this is a band that will be noticed and revered as one to watch.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 9
Originality: 8
Overall: 9

Rating: 8.6 out of 10