Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 08:19 PM by Giorgos Tsekas
Raven Black Night formed in 1999 in Adelaide, Australia, recording 2 demos (a year later ‘Demo 2000’ and ‘Morbid Gladiator Demo’ in 2002) before self-releasing their debut full length album, entitled ‘Choose The Dark’, in 2004. Currently the band is on Metal Blade Records roster releasing in 2013 ‘Barbarian Winter’ that took a variety of reviews around the world, mostly not positive unfortunately. ‘Metal Martyrs’ is a compilation printed by Blood And Iron Records in 2016 celebrating the first 10 years of these Aussies. The double cd anthology contains the ‘Choose The Dark’ album plus unreleased songs in the first cd and various demo songs recorded from 2000 to 2009 in the second one. Their sound is mostly 70’s driven, based on heavy riffs and doomy atmosphere. There’s plenty of Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol elements and epic parts, while Candlemass vocal approaching is 100% Messiah Marcolin, even though their vocalist hasn’t Messiah’s range or the high pitched throat. Besides the clean vocals the band uses also brutal vocals. Their clean vocalist (“The White Knight”) as we mentioned before sound like the fat monk but their death metal vocalist and also their bassist Matt Spencer (“The Black Knight”) has a more characteristic hint, growling with more confidence and personality. The diversity on the vocal lines gives an end to monotony and an edgy sound. While the guitars are strong and solid, sometimes you think you have heard some riffs before on a cult or obscure underground release of the 80’s. To be honest there’s a lot of bands out there that do the exact same thing with as Raven Black Night. But don’t forget that it is almost 15 years since this album has been released and the compositions sound fresh, so they have passed the test of time, something definitely very important if you ask me. So the songs may lack of originality but the final result is in the end amusing.
