The Raven's Wisdom

Ravenpath are a pretty youngish band having been founded in 2007. Hailing from Germany they released their debut full length “The Voices in the Winds” 2015 and now follow up with album number two. It is nearly unbelievable that this record is released independently as it is played and produced on such a high level of professionalism that it left me really impressed and stunned after the first spin.

The 5 guys play a brand of melodic death metal that is first and foremost based on crunchy and hard hitting riffs. A lot of bands flying under this branch of music tend to concentrate more on the melodic and dramatic elements but Ravenpath have put a lot of emphasis on the (death) metal factor. The chords are straight forward and while most of them have been done in a similar way a lot of times before they are presented with the enthusiasm and energy you would love to hear from some of the bigger names again. The melodic lead guitars often work in the background to create a dense and often slightly melancholic atmosphere. There are some nice solos of course but the song structures and how those pieces have been embedded into the bigger picture are in the main focus.

The rhythm section works like a well-oiled unit building a solid backbone to the melodic elements and the driving main riffs. Most of the tracks stay in the mid-tempo area but there are also some faster parts. There are a lot of laid-back and groovy sections with a slightly ambient feel to them. Those parts underline how important it was for the band to create a nice and often hypnotic mood over the distance of the whole record.

It speaks for the talent of the band that they have managed to take all these single pieces and put them together to create some memorable and stringent songs. The whole album has a great flow with groovier and more intense parts alternating with each other so that there is not one moment of boredom. Although consisting of ten songs plus intro I had the feeling that the end came too fast.

I also need to mention singer Ronny who has a powerful and demanding voice. His deep growling highlights the oldschool feeling of the music and his delivery helps ramping up the intensity of the whole affair up a notch or two.

With a nearly flawless and punchy production and a fantastic artwork “The Raven’s Wisdom” for sure is one of the highlights of 2019 when it comes to melodic death metal. Similar to their fellow countrymen from Nyktophobia in 2018 Ravenpath have drawn a lot of inspiration from the classic and traditional sound of the nineties and injected a bit of their own DNA to create a very strong piece of hard and melodic music.