Grave Will Bury You in a “Plain Pine Box”

Something most people probably never think about until they’re in the unfortunate position of having to arrange for the burial of a loved one: there are coffin showrooms. They’re just like car showrooms, only, y’know, full of coffins. It’s super-weird. It’s just a room full of coffins in various shapes and sizes and colors and finishes and inner linings, in a wide variety of price ranges. Some of them cost as much as your car. I’ll be crass: spending that much money on a box which is going into the ground forever and all time makes no sense to me. A coffin need only be utilitarian. A plain pine box will suffice.

It’s appropriate, then, that the new Grave song, “Plain Pine Box,” is itself purely functional. That may sound like a backhanded compliment, like I mean to imply that the track is bland and common, but nothing could be further from the truth. You wouldn’t want the plain pine box you’re burying a loved one in to fall apart as it’s carried to the grave site, allowing the body to fall out in front of all the mourners, and you don’t want your death metal song to only just barely qualify as a “song.” Grave’s “Plain Pine Box” is sturdy. Finely crafted, even. It doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but sometimes, bells and whistles are really unnecessary, aren’t they?

So screw the Kiss Koffins — get yourself a plain pine box below. The song will appear on Grave’s new album, Out of Respect for the Dead, which comes out October 16 on Century Media.