Ravencult – Morbid Blood

ravencult-morbid_blood

Around a decade ago, the funderground types (NWN/FMP) started a campaign to include Venom as the “first wave of black metal,” even though before that time nearly all sources agreed that Venom were NWOBHM and probably less influential on black metal than Motorhead. But suddenly this huge push existed to bring Venom into black metal; why? Listening to Ravencult, it is clear: so that they could make mediocre heavy metal, speed it up like a punk band and add rasping vocals and call it black metal. This created an instant doubling of product to capture that boom in clued-out kids trying to buy into the black metal hype.

Ravencult drops firmly within this camp. They keep the constant forward rhythm of a war metal band and underneath it re-visit riffs from the 80s and 90s which, despite their chromatic nature, often have a basis in the rhythms and tonal changes of hard rock. The result is something that you want to like but it is too simple-minded and repetitive ultimately to provide anything but a sting of nostalgia and then lots of comforting background noise. It will never motivate anyone to any particular greatness like the old bands used to do. As they say in the funderground, at least it is true… or is that so? It might be better to sever from the past, and create something new instead. Or at least something with the same intensity of death/black metal, instead of trying to make lower intensity versions of the classics so that people can enjoy them like easy listening music or lite jazz, sitting on their comfortable sofas sipping Chivas and “appreciating” black metal.

and of course the unholy genesis of underground metal — Hellhammer, Bathory, Sodom and Slayer —

Tags: , , ,

3 thoughts on “Ravencult – Morbid Blood

  1. Celtic Frosted Flakes says:

    Hey! What’s wrong with sitting on a comfortable couch sipping Chivas and appreciating black metal? Seriously though, I don’t think that’s a good description of the NWN type “trve” crowd. If anything I think that those people always come off as the most clueless and annoying try-hards out there.

  2. Richard Head says:

    What is war metal? I used to think it was stuff like Bathory but then I heard that Bathory was Viking metal and Blasphemy was war metal. But Blasphemy is just fast death metal. So what is war metal?

    1. Susa says:

      What is war metal?

      My understanding of war metal was that it’s a fast-paced early-death/black metal hybrid that emphasizes an aggressive sound (e.g. through simple riffs played with abrasive distortion) coupled with relatively blatant war-(thus the name) and violence-themed lyrics. You might indeed often call such bands Bathory clones (musically at least) from my impression, but don’t quote me I ain’t said shit.

Comments are closed.

Classic reviews:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z