review: Ravencult

Ravencult is here to put the metal back in black metal. The 2016 album is called Force of Profanation on Metal Blade Records. From the sounds of it, these Greeks are not pleased with what people call black metal nowadays. The way that Ravencult sees the situation, there are many wimps, politically correct hipsters, emos, and indies going around doing ridiculous things like "blackened hardcore" (what?! yikes!) and other nonsense. Sometimes a band's logo says a lot about its objectives and this is the case this time. Ravencult's present logo (bat wings) just happens to be in the same style as Nifelheim's logo (a bat), the Swedish kings of first-wave-style black metal like Venom, Bathory, Vulcano and Sarcófago and others such bands. This is the tradition of Ravencult. The album presents to you a work of fast, blasting black thrash with riffs that you can remember and connect with quickly. This band is not asking you to listen many more times in order for you to understand it. It is headbanging metal in the tradition of the founders of the genre of extreme metal with direct, memorable arrangements and the intensity kept a high level throughout. Ravencult has elements of both 80s black metal and 90s black metal, but their goal is no secret: to make fast, blasting tight-riffed, sharp songs based on the idea that black metal, death metal and thrash metal come from the same sources. Ravencult wants the listeners to do one thing: bang your head big time. Listen to the album and find out for yourself.

(review by MMB)

OFFICIAL: Originating from Athens, Greece, Ravencult was spawned to revive the relentless side of black/thrash metal, bringing forth an unpolished, organic sound to manifest their morbid darkness.

Formed in 2001, they initially unleashed a series of demo/7" EP releases, gaining their ground in the underground scene and developing their sound with a strong mark of mediterranean black metal. In the coming years, they evolved from the traditional black metal approach oftheir 2007 debut album, Temples Of Torment, to the macabre union of pounding black thrash metal found on their sophomore full-length, 2011's Morbid Blood.

After recieving much praise for their releases, the circle of ungodliness marched in 20 european countries over the years, touring and sharing the stage with a wide range of the extreme metal pioneers. Their growing fan base supported the Athenian quartet - all of their releases sold out quickly and were repressed, and their shows turned into a feast of tension and sonic violence. Following this success, in the summer of 2015, Ravencult joined forces with Metal Blade Records for a worldwide deal and the release of their third opus, entitled Force Of Profanation.

Maintaining their straightforward, riff-after-riff rawness, they dive even deeper into the abyss of metal obscurity with Force Of Profanation. Harsher in sound and more determined than ever, Ravencult delivers a merciless barrage of metallic death, combining 80s thrash mayhem with the black metal darkness of the 90s. Force Of Profanation lyrically continues the tradition of their trademark conceptual axis: revenge, horror and mocking of all that is holy.

Ravencult is Greece's morbid metal primitivism; glorifying the mentality of old and conjuring forth the forces of black-thrash, pounding with fanatic devotion.

ravencult.bandcamp.com/album/force-of-profanation

facebook.com/ravencultofficial/