Artist: Raven Throne
Album: Eternal, Dark
Type: Album
Label: Gardarika Musikk

Raven Throne formed in Belarus (between Russia and Ukraine), have been on the black metal circuit since 2004, and according to their MySpace site they have only one goal in mind; ‘To play black metal’. They released their first album in 2004, ‘Velikaja Ten' Chernoboga,’ have played numerous gigs and had a couple of line-up changes and despite these changes they managed to release a demo album in 2006 ‘Skvoz' Pepel Stoletij Na Zov Tvoj’. After releasing a further two albums they are now on their full length 2010 release ‘Eternal, Dark’. I had a long listen to see what I thought.

As soon as I put this album into the CD player, the first thing that came into my head was ‘purely epic’! The first track ‘In the Grip of Winter’ blasts in with some blackened doomy riffs and slow drumming. The vocals are amazing – this is quite possibly one of the best vocalists I have heard for a long time in the black metal scene. It’s definitely the riffs that stand out in this track though.

A few more tracks that caught my attention were track 3, ‘Greif of a Thousand Year Winter’ with its stunning and calming intro riff and toward the middle section, a little acoustic piece which lasts a mere 15-20 seconds, then back into the same as before. This track has no vocals, which makes it even more relaxing. It made me sit back and quietly nod my head. The outro sounds like wood burning which is quite fitting. Track 4 ‘Call it Snowstorm.. .’ reminded me of the good old days of Satyricon with slower drum beats then moving on to epic drum rolls. Track 5 ‘Pervosmert Pervobog’ was my firm favourite on the album with its dirty grindy guitar work throughout. ‘From Eternity to Eternity’ was another cracker, the vocals are amazing on this... angry screaming and drumming with a quick drum finish... just amazing!. A lot of the tracks contained no vocals, but it didn’t taint my liking this album. All in all I don’t have a bad thing to say about it. A well put together black metal masterpiece that takes you on a whirlwind journey of both peace and anger. The cover artwork is simple but effective, as is the inlay showing band members in full black metal makeup. Hoping these will tour here soon; I’m definitely interested to see how they play live.

http://www.myspace.com/raventhroneband