Raven Lord – Descent to The Underworld Review

Bottom line: Raven Lord are a new bunch of gifted metal Gods delivering an excellent addition to your classic metal feast. For me it turned out to be very...

ravenlord_cover

Released by: Mausoleum Records

Release Date: Out Now!!!

Genre: Heavy Metal

Links: http://www.raven-lord.com/

 

Line up:

Csaba Zvekan (Killing Machine): Vocals

Joe Stump (Holy Hell, Reign Of Terror): Lead Guitars

George Karafotis (Vermillion Days): Guitar

Alessandro Duo’ (Voodoo Highway): Keyboards

Jamie Mallender (Tony Martin Band): Bass

Rich Smith (Power Quest): Drums

 

Tracklist:

01. The Rebel

02. Attila The Hun

03. Let The Show Go On

04. Seal Of The Cross

05. Settle The Score

06. Promised Land

07. Black Friar

08. World Out Of Steel

09. Revelation

10. Metal Knights

11. Sun God

 

Beware of this album as there is a witch at work here ! Yyou can even hear her evil laugh in the track Black Friar !

You might easily get bewitched by this beast she created in the dark of the night: Raven Lord. And the roar of this beast comes from a voice you’ve never heard before !

Brewed from the seed of Rob Halford and Udo Dirkschneider (and probably some other mysterious ingredients as well) the singer of this new multinational classic metal band is a guy with an extraordinary versatile voice. Zsaba Zvekan’s tonsils can reach with ease the brutal, aggressive screams from Udo Dirkschneider (Accept, Udo) as well as the ultra high pitched regions from Rob Halford (Judas Priest) and his offspring Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens. But wait, Zsaba is not only capable to scream like hell but he can really sing with a nice melodic rock voice like Russel Allen (Symphony X).

Founding member Zsaba did not only sing on this debut album ‘Descent To The Underworld’ but also produced the record. Recorded and mixed in Gothenborg Sweden by Fredrik Nordström (Arch Enemy, Opeth) and mastered Maor Appelbaum (Sepultura, Halford) the album features some of the best classic metal I’ve heard in a long, long time.

I must confess though that I haven’t been following the metal scene that closely anymore in the last couple of years so there certainly rang no bell when I looked at the line up. But I found out that they all are very experienced musicians in the field of metal. A remark however must be made that the band already changed the line up recently with Joe Stump (Holy Hell/Reign Of Terror) replacing the guitar wizardry you hear on the album from Stefan Lindholm. And also the keys and drums were played by other guys than mentioned in the current line up (by Pontus Larsson respectively Henrik Hedman)

As I already indicated, this is a true killer album with out of this world vocals, crushing guitar riffs and flashy, solo shredding from Stefan Lindholm that turns the ‘old’ Yngwie Malmsteen pale. We’ve got a nice, thick bass as well and the double bass drums are also omnipresent. And the subtle but very tasteful keyboards (Let The Show Go On, Promised Land) give the music a great neoclassical feel.

References are: (obvious) Accept, Judas Priest but also Vicious Rumors and Yngwie Malmsteen shine through.

It’s difficult to point at favorites as the songwriting is at a constant high level. Powerful and solid tracks with catchy melodies and choruses all over. The production is top notch and I really like the bombastic approach here.

Besides the sometimes dark, shady and grimm atmosphere we’ve got also glory full  ‘teutonic’ moments in which you will for sure raise your fist in the air and scream your lungs out. At least that’s what I did in my kitchen doing the dishes while listening to the album on my mp3 player. There is no time to rest as the music stays on the path of high energy heavy metal giving you the opportunity for full blast headbanging till the end. You can imagine that my dishes had to wait a while !

Bottom line: Raven Lord are a new bunch of gifted metal Gods delivering an excellent addition to your classic metal feast. For me it turned out to be very addictive, and it had to happen once: this is my first 10 out of 10 review here at MGM !

Out now on Mausoleum Records.

 

Written by Ruud

Ratings    Ruud    10/10

 

 

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