ALBUM REVIEW: Nattravnen – Kult Of the Raven

Here I review another release from Transcending Obscurity, which is becoming a hallmark of quality in the underground Extreme Metal world! This review is of the new NATTRAVNEN full length album which is due out in December!

1. “The Night Of The Raven” begins with some nice raven calls, certainly very fitting. The guitars with plentiful effects have a really unique sound as they draw into huge atmospheric riffs full of life and melody. There is certainly a blackened edge to the music but some absolutely killer grinding Death Metal riffs soon follow up with guttural assaults of vocals and gnarly drums. The synths really elevate the piece nicely giving it an epic strength. The brutal and intense pace and attack of the song is absolutely gorgeous, a really stunning opening piece with a very unique style too. The vocals are absolutely haunting, really adding to the drawn out tense vibes the song creates so perfectly. Great work!
2. “Suicidium, The Seductress Of Death” absolutely kills from very off. Groovy riffs just punch the song in beautifully with some atmospheric synths and really eerie growls. The hooks of the guitar riffs and the blast beats create a really enticing and mesmerising soundscape that is perfect for the gruesome gutturals that are growled over them. This is some really powerfully intense material with excellent sampling used to bring everything together very well. Superb songwriting and another excellent piece of music!
3. “Corvus Corax Crown” has a more industrial feel to the instrumental section that blasts into chaotic Death Metal grinds once more. The dissonant attack of the song is absolutely monstrous. There is such a full on and unpredictable aggression to this album that is just captivating to behold. The lead guitars add a really uncomfortable tone to things that I think really accentuates the grotesquely intense attack of the music really nicely. Some absolutely phenomenal vocals on this one too, they sound even more demonic than the others!
4. “Upon The Sound Of Her Wings” starts off with more doomy territory, huge drawn out growls, slower riffs and some killer drums that just drop gorgeously into high speed and incredibly intense Extreme Metal. There is a really nice ambience to the material that helps the momentum grow to while new sounds such as cleaner guitars are thrown in carefully. There is a really cool experimental edge to this that doesn’t resemble anything in particular, taking a wholly new creative direction which I think is something totally awesome.
5. “Return To Nevermore” begins with tons of old school riffs that are made entirely refreshing with the synths. This piece has a really crushing Kataklysm like groove to the riffs that just slay. The convulsive pace of the riffs is met with intense drums and absolutely amazing vocal work. The song is fairly simplistic yet also very original, catchy and incredibly enjoyable. The bleaker elements have some weird vocals that sound really cool too. Another very interesting song that absolutely decimates the listener but is also filled with melody and beautifully put together atmosphere.
6. “From The Haunted Sea” has a very strong Behemoth vibe to the intro with some really killer riffs tearing right into things but then dropping into a really nice crawling groove that is followed by beautifully intense yet ambient Death Metal. While the foundation of the song is fairly simplistic, the experimental nature and progressions that are use take it to whole new heights creating something incredibly esoteric and that really takes you to new places musically that don’t feel like they have stagnated. Some brilliant songwriting and the originality is just so damn great. The song is fittingly very haunting. Wonderful stuff!
7. “The Anger Of Despair When Coping With Your Death” feels like a tastefully bleak funeral march with stunning synths, powerful riffs and intense blast beats. Soon the attack disappears to allow tension to build, very effectively. The song has clean vocals and whispers that sound really strange but wonderful too. The full on attack soon regroups to just assault the listener with absolutely ferocious yet melodic Metal that seems to ebb and flow very nicely with the softer sections creating a very unpredictable atmosphere. There is a certain volatility to the music that I am really loving, something about this is just so new and feels like it has never been done before which is certainly something I really look for in new music. Another really cool song that has a very cathartic feeling full of emotion to it.
8. “Kingdom Of The Nattravnen” kicks off with haunting synths and guitars, thundering drums soon join along with guttural vocals and there is a great blasting array of instruments that soon follows just driving the excellent and chaotic music into new ground. The lead work is creepy and then the whole song drops into this more eerie and foreboding slower section once more utilising the whispered vocals very nicely. The faster sections on this song, like others on the album have absolutely no warning and really catch you off guard before disappearing again, also without warning which I think gives the aforementioned unpredictable and volatile nature of the album so much credibility and strength. Another brutally dissonant and aggressive piece of brilliant Death Metal mayhem. Fantastic.
9. “Kult Av Ravnen” is the final piece of this strange and gorgeous album, I honestly have no idea what to expect them to close the album with. Opening with dismal guitars that feel pretty melancholic before dropping into nice marching drums and groovy rhythms that build to this huge and fantastically over the top atmospheric soundscape. I already love the direction of this final piece, while feeling like the album is slowing to a halt it does so by packing in tons more aggression and killer songwriting. The intense assault of the guttural vocals and surging riffs is just unrelenting but also woven among the more ambient sections really nicely. This song seems to have it all, from softer melodies to crushingly intense brutality, I think it has to be the strongest of the album, a must listen!

This is some of the most unique and obliterating Death Metal I have heard in a while, there is a really strange experimental side to the album that I loved. Excellent work on this throughout with a genius level of creativity! -8.5/10