Any stroll through the metal section at your local record store and you might notice that the term "Death Metal" written in bold letters on shiny stickers and splashed across one out of every three albums you pass. The term has become so trite and overused that it's not even really an indication that the band flaunting it plays unswerving, threatening metal. This however is not the case with South Carolina's From Graves of Valor, a band comprised of the former members of Through the Eyes of the Dead. While other bands flirt with, employ themes or borrow riffs from death metal's past, From Graves of Valor creates an unholy union between their vision and death metal itself. Stepping into the studio with renowned metal production wizard, Jamie King in the winter of 2006, From Graves of Valor have created Famine, the bloodiest and most vicious record to be released so far this year. Every song is an exercise in sonic brutality and when the album has finished playing, it will leave the listener fatigued. From Graves of Valor does not simply play death metal, they are Death Metal incarnate.