Introducing: Grave Pleasures (ex-The Oath, ex-Beastmilk, In Solitude)

Hype is excitement’s slutty cousin. Sometimes genuine, sometimes practical, hype can cuddle and coddle, vindicate and victimize. For a band like Beastmilk, it was organic, a reaction to a distinct vibe from a powerful emerging band. Theirs was well-behaved hype, for mostly their stunning creative expressions drove it, with no big-contract gossip or distracting costumes or whatever. In this cloud of expectation, Beastmilk was represented by one taut, singular album called Climax in 2013. Then they shed a founding member and took the name Grave Pleasures.

In 2015, that risky change in identity and title might just save them. See, a new, pushy hype awaited Beastmilk after Climax, and it probably presented a bigger challenge than does their total reset. Why? Added to their line-up in 2014 was guitarist Linnéa Olsson of fellow hypees The Oath, another exciting Scandinavian band that crashed after one super record. So, along with the usual pressure to follow up an intriguing debut album, the collision of Oath hype and Beastmilk hype might’ve only been justified by a record that causes an actual orgasm and likes to do housework.

Smartly, Grave Pleasures probably is satisfied to just undertake an annoying campaign to start fresh with old and new fans (and to discard the iffy name Beastmilk); this way they are pressure-free and free to focus on concocting another dark, riveting art-rock album, like new wave-era The Cult trapped in a cellar, or a post-Curtis Joy Division covering Katatonia. The Misfits and The Smiths in one. Must hear.

Grave Pleasures debut album Dreamcrash came out Friday (digital) via Metal Blade. Get it here and pre-order CD and bundles here (out November 13).