By: Richard Maw
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 01/10/2015
Label: Xtreem Music
Once
again, it is all about the riffs- Steve Watson managing to accurately mimic the
sound of tanks rolling through your town and laying waste to it. What you get is thirteen tracks of spiteful fury as the riffs and
songs rage by. If you like metal, you
really should like Ravens Creed, being as they present the genre in its purest
form: riffs, aggression, adrenaline and pace all combine to make a satanic
racket of biblical (ha!) proportions. Uncompromising,
extreme music from an island of festering resentment. Hail The ‘Creed’
‘Ravens Krieg’ CD//DD track listing:
01. Rock Cemetery
02. Palmer the Harmer
03. Jungle Justice
04. Riding the Pillock
05. Lecturn of Burning
Swords Reversed
06. Victory in Defeat
07. VIP Treatment
08. Go Home
09. Bitten By Witch Fever
10. Brigade '77
11. Dirty Diary
12. While You Were
Sleeping
13. Carrion
Screaming
Ravens Creed is:
The
Review
Nottingham's
(and Leeds) noisiest bastards are back with this third full length release.
Once again, it is all about the riffs- Steve Watson managing to accurately
mimic the sound of tanks rolling through your town and laying waste to it, this
is a major band selling point- but of course the whole band more than pulls
their weight. I may be biased, but I think vocalist Al Osta is a better fit
than Big Ben Ward of Orange Goblin who
graced the first album. The vocals come thick, fast and unintelligible.
The
record marks bassist Rod Boston's foray into full length territory with the
band and the sound produced here is suitably rumbling and crushing. You get
thirteen tracks of spiteful fury as the riffs and songs rage by. Most songs are
around the two minute mark and take no prisoners. With the liner notes
containing hateful song explanations rather than lyrics, you get a sense of the
band's raison d'etre. ‘Rock Cemetery’ flies out
of the speakers and there is no real let up. The songs remain taught, focused
and well titled throughout (‘Riding The Pillock’?!).
Once
again, Jay Graham makes the splinters fly from behind the kit. Accuracy and
metronomical reliability are the hall marks of his playing. As the saying goes:
Your band is only as good as your drummer... Witness the diminishing live
presence of Metallica for proof.
‘Victory in Defeat’ marks a nice change of pace for the band,
veering as it does into sludge and doom territory, and the album's half way
point is reached. The likes of ‘VIP Treatment’ are feral fury
crystallised into aural form as is ‘Go Home’ (and the rest of the
album). By the time ‘Dirty Diary’ tears past you, you
may well be in need of a re-think about what made you get into this type of
stuff in the first place. Certainly, ‘While You Were Sleeping’ and ‘Carrion
Screaming’ won't give you any respite. Indeed, the song length of ‘Carrion
Screaming’ is not a manufacturing error. It really is a lot longer
than two minutes! It manages to maintain its intensity over the course of
thirteen and a half minutes. No mean feat.
If
you like metal, you really should like Ravens Creed, being as
they present the genre in its purest form: riffs, aggression, adrenaline and
pace all combine to make a satanic racket of biblical (ha!) proportions. Simply
put, this picks up where “The Power”
left off and does the legacy and lineage of bands like Venom, Motorhead and Napalm Death proud.
Uncompromising, extreme music from an island of festering resentment. Hail.
‘Ravens Krieg’ is available
here
FFO: Master, Hellhammer, Venom,
Discharge
Band info: facebook
