Doomed Confessionary: Casper Axilgård & Atli Brix Kamban (Grava)
Grava is a blackened post-hardcore/sludge metal trio with members from Faroe Islands and Denmark.
Grava returns with ice-cold vengeance on their sophomore album, »The Great White Nothing«, scheduled for release on September 28th, 2024 via Aesthetic Death, Vinyltroll Records and Evil Noise Recordings.
Their debut album, »Weight Of A God« (2022), showcased a violent yet atmospheric type of sludge metal that was simultaneously raw in its execution and disciplined in terms of songwriting. Its follow-up continues in the same vein while adding a touch of nuance and depth to the vicious soundscape. Like its predecessor, the album was produced by Troels Damgaard Holm and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege.
Grava are Casper Axilgård (drums), Niels Asger Svensson (vocals, bass) and Atli Brix Kamban (vocals, guitar).
Can you say a few words about your band?
GRAVA is a Faroese/Danish sludge metal trio, residing in Copenhagen, Denmark. We started around 2020 and released our debut album, »Weight Of A God« in 2022. We are about to release our second album, »The Great White Nothing« in a few weeks, on 28 September.
From the start of the band we knew that we wanted to create something really heavy but other than that we started completely from scratch. As the songs came together, the music and lyrics began settling around a theme about humanity’s encounter with death, seen through the eyes of the dying. It wasn’t like normal storytelling where you go through a narrative, but more like an attempt to capture the scattered fragments from the last moments of someone’s life.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Casper: The recording of our second album »The Great White Nothing« was five days of pretty intense work, which left us all very worn out.
What can you be most proud of so far?
Casper: I am proud of how far we have come since the release of »Weight Of A God«. Slowly but steady building a reputation and a name in the underground scene in Denmark and beyond.
Atli: The new album.
What was your biggest regret?
Casper: I don’t really have any regrets up to this point.
Atli: No regrets so far.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Casper: GRAVA keeps on evolving with each show, but playing support for Katla infront of 300+ people, who were very supportive from first note till last, was a blast.
Atli: Lots of great moments so far! One great event was when Elitist invited us to play at their release party in their rehearsal space together with Smertegrænsens Toldere and Decorticate.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
Casper: Skeletal Remains has caught my attention with their old school death metal, reminding me of the good old 90’s, in the vein of Morbid Angel, Deicide etc.
Atli: Probably the sheer size of it. You could probably spend every waking moment going through new albums and never get to the end.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Casper: I listen to a lot of different genres and these days I am getting a great kick of the new album from Common & Pete Rock’s »The Auditorium Vol.1«. Old school hiphop at its best anno 2024.
Atli: I’ve been spinning the new Ulcerate album a lot, it’s awesome. And ever since the Cavalera brothers re-recorded Sepultura’s »Schizophrenia« album, I’ve dusted off my old version and listened to it a lot. Don’t get me wrong, they nailed the re-recording, but I still want that old 80’s sound. Also, after two years Blut Aus Nord’s »Disharmonium (Undreamable Abysses)« is still on my turntable at least once every week.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Casper: One of my uncles told me at an early age that I should stay open minded to all kinds of music genres, to get a more diverse understanding & feeling into my play.
Atli: Every time you make mistakes while you practice, you teach your body to repeat them. So slow down.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Casper: As mentioned above, I listen to alot of different genres, but I really have a deep connection with old Soul music from the 60’s & 70’s. In recent years, I have enjoyed Anderson Paak a lot, he is a bit more funky and RnB though.
Atli: The Kinks »The Kinks Are the Village Green Society«. GZA »Liquid Swords«. Alien 3.
Can you say something more about the current music scene in Copenhagen / Denmark?
Casper: The Danish metal scene has never been bigger and more diverse than now. Bands like LLNN & Alkymist have added a new and international sound that I admire and feel proud of being from Denmark/Copenhagen.
Atli: Right now, the underground metal scene here in Copenhagen and in Denmark as a whole is pretty much on fire. There is not a weekend that goes by without tons of bands ripping every venue apart. I haven’t even gotten around to listen to half of the bands that are active, and sometimes I think that we might look back on the 20’s as some sort of golden age for Danish metal.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
The 13th of September we will play at Copenhagen Metal Fest, a 3 day festival with only Danish metal bands. There are some other shows in the pipeline, but we can’t really reveal anything yet.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
On the 28th of September GRAVA will release our second album »The Great White Nothing« and we will be supporting the album with a round of shows in the first half of 2025. We hope to get some shows outside Denmark as well & of course we will keep on writing new music.
How can people best support your band?
People can best support us by going to our shows, buying our merch/record(s) and spreading the word about GRAVA.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Casper: I want to thank our listeners for their time reading this interview, listening to our music and hopefully one day, we will see you in the crowd at one of our shows. We have exciting new projects on the horizon, so follow us on Facebook or Instagram for further news.
Atli: Support the underground.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well