Not sure quite what the hell I expected from Dismal Times, the 2009 debut demo EP from Chicago traditional doom outfit Earthen Grave, but I am pretty sure the problem was with my expectation. Having heard a lot of top notch trad doom lately from the likes of The Wounded Kings and Apostle of Solitude, it’s hard to think of a reason I shouldn’t have dug immediately into Earthen Grave’s first half-hour of output as well, but something about the five tracks the six-piece outfit delivered just didn’t sit right in my head.

Maybe the bar was set too high in my mind because of how much Trouble’s name has been tossed around in companion to Earthen Grave’s. Sure, the band features former Trouble bassist Ron Holzner, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Dismal Times is going to be Manic Frustration. His mere presence (and neither that of Trouble’s Jeff “Oly” Olson nor Rick Wartell) wasn’t enough to save Wet Animal, so I don’t know why it would make so much of a difference in Earthen Grave.

Or maybe it was the violin thing. Earthen Grave aren’t the first band to tout strings, and Rachel Barton Pine’s talent is obvious from the outset, but there’s something gimmicky about it, isn’t there? Like, “Hey, check us out, we have this thing, and that makes us different?” so it can be a songwriting crutch? It’s possible that’s what did it, and all the more so because Pine rarely steps out of the parameters of the riffs of guitarists Tony Spillman and Jason Muxlow (The Living Fields), or even when she does, as on the solo of “Life Carries On,” it doesn’t do much to enhance the song another guitar solo couldn’t have accomplished. I’m sure it’s exciting to watch live, stringed instruments in a rock context usually are, but the standout factor isn’t really there on the recording. It works in some spots and is awkward in others. That’s life.

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