The Raven's Shadow

Having emerged as a one-man project in 2009 and evolved into a duo in 2014, Germany’s Bloodred is now bringing the second full length release. With a blackened death metal approach that appears to be pretty straightforward, the band doesn’t innovate much but rather creates an impression with quality delivery. “The Raven’s Shadow” follows a roughly standard recipe for the genre, rugged and consistent across the entire 50 minute running time, rarely turning off the beaten track. Building up on the 2016 debut “Nemesis”, vocalist and instrumentalist Ron Merz and his partner in crime, drummer Joris Nijenhuis (Atrocity, Leaves Eyes), show noticeable evolution. The one aspect that stands out as the greatest leap forward is the high-quality sound production of the record, deep, pummeling and clear, which is always admirable from an underground entity.

The album builds suspense with the dark atmospheric intro to the title track before slamming directly into high-octane riff mode which seems to be the general consensus on how these guys like to party. The style of fast aggressive guitar riffs and drums sound closer to black metal rather than death. There’s constant use of tremolo picking melodies and the drums keep a constant flow of double kicks and groovy patterns emphasized intensified emerging blast beats. Clean crisp sound on the drums brings some accuracy to the rather chaotic feel of the record. The corrosive lead vocals are also rather evil, dwelling on blackened territories. Still, there’s a more rhythmic component as well that alternates with the continuous harshness bringing more engaging song structures overall.

Melodies aren’t dominant in the picture but add diversity and valuable atmosphere when they appear, either emerging the feeling of dark anthems or creating tension through more dissonant ideas. Such anthemic ideas come in what I felt were the two stand-out tracks “We Who Ruled the North” and closing piece “The Northstar Whispers”. Among names of the black area like Emperor and Moonsorrow, the band lists Amon Amarth and Amorphis in their influences, and I think that’s were the approach to melodies in these songs is rooted. It touches on the northern feeling, gets wider and more bombastic in scope, yet the black tinge is never disparaged. The opening to “Under This Sun” is another massive flash to Amon Amarth’s chug meets lead based guitar style, and the closing track offers a refreshing end to the record with another atmospheric intro and more memorable riffing and evolution.

The downside of this record is in its lack of diversity, and as said, I feel this band impresses more through their delivery but the compositions themselves can get stale. If you can eat up riffs for ages then that’s not a problem, and the album offers plenty in that direction, but to me it fails to stay memorable in the grand scheme. In the second half, the aforementioned twists greatly make up for this setback. “The Raven’s Shadow” released independently on 18th of May and can be found on Bandcamp.

Enjoy!

Originally written for The Metal Observer: http://www.metal-observer.com/3.o/review/bloodred-the-ravens-shadow/