CDXXXII Thousand Years of Crime and Murders is my first ever exposure to Raventale, which is surprising – considering that this site started out trawling Bandcamp for music to review – as it appears that the man behind Raventale, Astaroth Merc, has been unbelievably prolific with 21 releases available on their Bandcamp page to purchase.
After all, Raventale are described as Atmospheric Black Metal and that – as regular readers of the site will know – is right up my alley, in my front door, and putting its corpse painted arse firmly on my sofa, dinking my beer. Yet, somehow, I managed to miss Raventale until now. And I’m kind of mad at myself that I have.
Raventale ticks all the right boxes for me on CDXXXII Thousand Years of Crime and Murders – which is a bastard of a mouthful, by the way – with Atmospheric Black Metal stewing in a cauldron, infusing itself with huge orchestral pieces and the sound of a symphony of the damned. It thunders across icy tundra on the back of a hound from hell, spitting fire and rage at the human race it, passing terrifying judgment on all those it deems guilty of failing the mankind. Which seems to be everybody.
The press blurb states that this record is
“…a reflection on humanity’s eternal depravity, its violence and destructive legacy across centuries.”
And from a musical standpoint, that is exactly how it feels. A dark, twisted mirror showing us all the horror we have unleashed upon the world.
Lyrically, however, I’ll have to take the press blurbs word for it, as the promo I have didn’t come with a lyric sheet and as anyone knows, when it comes to Black Metal lyrics are pretty difficult to discern at the best of times, but when they’re wrapped inside the malestrom of a musical assault, it’s fucking impossible.
But that’s the point, really, isn’t it?
The voice of Black Metal should always be part of the music itself, not seperate. It should be an integral cog in the vast working machine that floods your senses and swamps you with its sound. And on that front, Astaroth Merc has this nailed down.
He is a very talented individual is Mr. Merc, writing, performing and producing everythin himslef and he isn’t afraid to spread his wings, with four of the tracks on offer close to or above 8 mins – Deathmarch clocking in at a whopping 9 minutes 11 seconds – with only Shamatha and Gasmask View not coming close to them, but as they are both instrumental pieces placed as the intro and outro to CDXXXII Thousand Years of Crime and Murders, it’s only to be expected.
I like this record. I like Raventale and I’m quite in awe of Astaroth Merc’s ability to do everything himself.
It does what it says on the tin. It’s Atmospheric Black Metal, but better than that it’s good Atmospheric Black Metal, and if, like me, you’re a fan of good Atmospheric Black Metal then this album is for you.
CHOICE CUT: Misanthrope
RATING: 3 OUT OF 5
- 0: Fucking Shit
- 1: Shit
- 2: Not Bad Shit
- 3: Pretty Good Shit
- 4: Amazing Fucking Shit
- 5: The Best Shit You Will Ever Hear
CDXXXII Thousand Years of Crime and Murders is available to buy now, from this link.
PRESS SOURCE: Cátia C./Against PR.
