Artwork by: Travis Smith

Style: Progressive Death Metal, Death Doom Metal (Mixed Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Novembers Doom, Draconian, My Dying Bride
Country: Canada
Release date: 17 April 2026

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In the video game Cronos: The New Dawn, an integral element revolves around merging. The protagonist, Traveler ND 3576, spends much of the game harvesting specific peoples’ essences, essentially collecting personalities in order to change the horrid apocalyptic present. Of course, this proves dangerous as she risks erasure by these warring ids. There’s also the Orphans—creatures who absorb their dead in order to combine abilities and become more dangerous adversaries. Knowledge and power are gained through these parallel acts of homogeneity, respectively, but also a terrifying loss of the unique individual.

Formed by members of Texan progressive death metal act Wills Dissolve and Canadian death doom metal outfit Altars of Grief, Northern Graves seemed a perfect fit for this consideration of merger and identity. Both root bands represented different approaches. Wills Dissolve trafficked in bold, Opethian prog-death on The Heavens Are Not On Fire (2018), and the grandiose thirty-minute single track album Echoes (2020). Altars of Grief, on the other hand, mined their black ore from the depths of funereal death doom, affecting a dirgeful, Gothic tone in line with bands like Draconian and Novembers Doom. How do Northern Graves assimilate these varying qualities into their own unique being? Let’s explore.

For starters, Northern Graves’ blend of atmospheric black metal and progressive death doom sets their compass more immediately towards Altars of Grief, though to say this is a direct continuation of that lineage would be misleading. While there’s threads to be drawn between both bands’ implementation of doleful orchestration (not to mention vocalist Damian Smith), Northern Graves finds power in propulsion. After the melancholic instrumental “A Story Told By The Wind”, debut album Derelict Heart kicks off properly with “Lanterns.” Drummer Branson Heinz (Wills Dissolve) pounds the earth with a steady blast beat as the guitars flood the unfolding tributary with frosty trems. The black metal influence is clear, even as the song evolves to include a hypnotic doom-y passage that builds to a tasteful arpeggiated guitar run. Damian Smith’s throaty growls add beastly weight to the proceedings, but his Ryan Clark-esque (Demon Hunter) cleans draw my ear the most, his reverent tones rising above the primal forces of the instrumentation to deliver haunting sermons. And when the two styles layer over each other as they cry “into the night, she calls to me” during the closing moments of “Lanterns”, I come to realize I’ve added my own voice to this evocation.

However, that’s not to say Wills Dissolve’s genetic markers are absent: all across Derelict Heart can be found that band’s penchant for elegant, shifting compositions. Songs transition from aggressive, red-toothed death metal and haunting atmoblack, to sobering folk passages and vibrant, dramatic solos, all usually building to an ear-catching vocal. Be it Smith or Andrew Curauna’s guiding riffage, or the way Smith’s voice portends a curve in the path, every twist and turn unfolds with the assuredness of a rushing river, so by the time we hit, say, the mournful piano outro in “Nocturne”, every element feels earned. The pacing, too, is at a premium; despite nearly every song eclipsing the six minute mark, Derelict Heart’s forty-one minutes slip by like a breeze. All said, Wills Dissolve fans hoping for a more adventurous musical odyssey like “Echoes” may come away somewhat disappointed by the on-rails designs of Derelict Heart; no Floydian slips or Rush-inspired moments to be found here in the primal forests and bonfire nights of which Northern Graves’ walks.

A small price to pay, I say, when the final result of this musical merger results in an album so immensely and completely engaging. Rare is the day anymore where I find myself singing or humming lyrics from a review album—not because the work in question is necessarily bad, rather that the downside of reviewing is that you can easily become numb to the wiles and magicks of music. So, when a record breaks through the malaise and holds my attention after-hours, as it were, well that’s a fact worth noting. Derelict Heart is a sweeping blend of atmoblack and death doom: darkly beautiful, achingly desolate, and haunted as the rural North which inspired this project. In Cronos: The New Dawn, the player is frequently warned and incentivized not to let the Orphans merge, but if I stumbled across Altars of Grief consuming Wills Dissolve in a dark alley somewhere, suffice to say that’s one merger I’d be okay letting play out.

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Recommended tracks: Lanterns, Endless, Nocturne, Derelict Heart
You may also like: Altars of Grief, Wills Dissolve, Falling Leaves, Domhain, Panopticon
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Meuse Music Records

Northern Graves is:
– Damian Smith (guitars, vocals, piano)
– Roman Chester (bass)
– Branson Heinz (drums)
– Andrew Caruana (vocals, guitars, orchestral arrangements)
With guests:
– Nick Block (vocals on “Endless”)
– Déhà (vocals on “Derelict Heart”)
– Jaakko Mäntymaa (vocals on “Hazard”)