Hailing from Australia, GROTESQUE BLISS feature vocalist / bassist Bjorn of the equally mighty TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE and Grave Upheaval; guitarist Chris Burton, whose credentials stretch back to the ’90s with Paramæcium, Cryptal Darkness, and then the successive The Eternal among others; and veteran drummer Matthew Southcombe, whose credits include Internecine Excoriation among others, filling out the lineup. In 2022, the trio promptly set about capturing their ancient doom-death. Two rehearsals followed, with a self-titled demo arriving in 2024.
Now, that demo sees international release in expanded form, concluding with a cover of My Dying Bride’s classic “I Am the Bloody Earth.” Thus padded out to a full-length, GROTESQUE BLISS’ first long-form recording is a dark & disturbing display of paradigmatic doom-death, and unapologetically so. Granted, some parallels can be drawn to Grave Upheaval’s bleakness as well as TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE’s cavernousness – and, of course, Paramæcium are a cult name among doom-death aficionados – but on Grotesque Bliss do they stick to a rigorous template of primeval lurch, caveman execution, and twisting, tendrilous songwriting that thankfully doesn’t wander into amorphous, all-atmosphere territory. Sometimes, almost fleetingly, will their stomp almost encroach upon the mid-tempo, but then GROTESQUE BLISS strip it back to bare-bones, suffocatingly slow. Vapor trails of leads add a touch of deeper melancholy, as do the tortured moans; otherwise, vocals plumb the abyss, and there is where you’ll stay. No light, no hope, no fun: this is Grotesque Bliss.
Released by:
Iron Bonehead (Germany), 2025.
