It’s no secret that Poland is clearly among the best countries when it comes to quality black metal today: while Mgła is deservedly conquering the planet with several festival appearances, Dark Fury, Ohtar and Selbstmord related personnel among others keep garnering the praise of a slightly smaller, yet truly devoted audience. New projects seem to be founded all the time, such as Ravenmoon Sanctuary, an appropriately titled band that on their debut album Winter Desolation of Death present dark and atmospheric black metal. Unsurprisingly, it sounds fantastic.
Winter Desolation of Death is absolutely not about racing or technical abilities. The key here is, as clichéd as it sounds, the atmosphere. The band tends to crawl in mid-tempos, playing rather sloppily, focusing on dark and sombre soundscapes. The desperate shrieks would even nod to depressive black metal’s direction, but that is not the deal here at all. Like the artwork and song titles tell, the album is more a journey through wintry forests and graveyards… Ravenmoon sanctuaries? The band name may seem pretentious, but in truth it’s quite fitting.
Much credits for the atmosphere go to the keyboard mastermind GrimSpirit, better known from the synth-heavy Evilfeast, whose work on this album is admittedly admirable. The grand intro “Gravespirits of the Frozen Woods” alone brings the chills, not to even mention how sweetly the keyboards are incorporated to the black metal on latter tracks.
Ravenmoon Sanctuary doesn’t offer anything truly new on their debut, but since when has that been the most significant point? Once again, you may look at the artwork and song titles and decide if you can stomach a rather traditional Polish black metal album without the slightest sight of anything modern. I sure as hell can, as long as it’s done as tastefully as right here.
4 / 5
No comments:
Post a Comment