Quoth the Raven… It is interesting to see that in 2017, we are starting to see bands appearing on the scene that are influenced by the music of the early to mid-2000’s. Bands such as Trivium, Bullet for My Valentine, Killswitch Engage and Five Finger Death Punch’s rhythmic double bass pounding in time with machine gun guitars is starting to appear with younger bands cutting their teeth alongside sweeping melodic patterns replacing the classic riff.
The Raven Age are once such band, formed in 2009 and containing George Harris, the son of a certain Steve Harris of Iron Maiden. The Raven Age burst onto the scene in 2014 with their self-titled EP and bolstered by prestigious support slots with Iron Maiden, Tremonti and Anthrax, The Raven Age hit 2017 running as they released their highly anticipated debut album; Darkness Will Rise. The first thing to note about Darkness Will Rise is the pure length of the album, 13 tracks clocking in at just under 85 minutes is a tall ask with the average length of each song at around 6 minutes. The main issue with this, is that back in 2014, The Raven Age’s self-titled debut contained 3 of the songs that are also featured on Darkness Will Rise; Eye Among the Blind, The Death March and Angel in Disgrace. This shows the nativity of a young band who find it difficult to trim the fat with an attachment to the songs that they have written. Many of the songs on Darkness Will Rise should have been trimmed back and go on a little longer than they need to, Promised Land, My Revenge and Winds of Change are all examples of this, but with a little future guidance and learning, this could easily be rectified. If anyone can offer advice, then George needs to look no further than his own dad. However, there is no denying the talent that oozes from The Raven Age, each member plays their part phenomenally and they work together like a well oiled machine. The drumming of Jai Patel never lets up and is actually one of the standout elements on Darkness Will Rise and would appeal to any fan of the likes of Slipknot, the only criticism that can be pertained to Patel is that during My Revenge, Patel’s cymbal can get quite irritating every second with it being so high in the mix. The guitars of Harris and Dan Wright fit the music perfectly, their down tuned mammoth riffing interspersed with their sweeping melodic passages are very much the in-demand sound with nods to Machine Head and Trivium it thoroughly shows the sort of music that inspired The Raven Age. One of the best ways to describe Darkness Will Rise is exceptionally melodic and that is down to the vocals of Michael Burrough. Burrough’s vocals are actually quite good considering the sort of melodic metalcore/groove metal that The Raven Age play, Burrough has a voice which sells records and it is no surprise as to why he fronts the band, Burrough’s voice is melodic and would appeal to fans not just of metalcore, but also older fans of the nu-metal era – it is interesting to note that The Raven Age avoid the metalcore cliché by refraining from using growls in their work and it pays dividends, however, the band needs to lay off the pinch harmonics. During Darkness Will Rise, you will notice that there are little glimpses of Harris’ lineage, The Death March contains an Iron Maiden style gallop with an obvious nod to his dad, whilst The Dying Embers of Life contains a vocal melody from Burrough that is straight out of Iron Maiden’s more recent output, reminiscent of Blood Brothers, Dance of Death or Where the Wild Wind Blows. However, other than the length of the Darkness Will Rise, the other huge criticism is of the production of the album, yes, it’s a high end job, modern, sleek and obviously very costly, but all the instruments seem to be on the same level giving Darkness Will Rise a huge one dimensional feeling with the massive lack of dynamics making the album feel like one long slog and it is this that lets the album down. For a debut album, Darkness Will Rise is decent enough and there are bigger things instore for The Raven Age. If you are fan of metalcore or groove metal then The Raven Age will be right up your street. However, there is a large section of the metal community which will sum this up as meh and average at best. 6/10 Adam McCann
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