Ravenous Deathworship

Oh boy, a black/death supergroup from Norway. How very... promising, I guess. The cover art of this album is a pretty good summary of the music: drab yet 'professional', relatively attractively composed but undeniably unremarkable. It's very average all around, exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from a black/death group with accomplished musicians and some level of financial backing. On a totally unrelated side note, there's seriously a song called 'Sadosadistic'. Really now.

It's not bad music, but it absolutely refuses to deviate (hurrr) from the standard of black/death metal. Every element of this is as predictable as you imagine from the cover art. Blast beats and double bass and mid-paced sections and mildly catchy tremolo riffs along with croaking vocals. There is nothing to differentiate this band from any other. Perhaps the only thing I can really say is that some of the riffcraft does seem a cut above the average, occasionally popping out a solid little Dark Funeral demonic ditty, but overall they're nothing special.

It's listenable but there's no real MOTIVATION to listen to this. If I just need a fix of black/death metal I can listen to this, but why would I instead of any number of other albums I own? I could laud this album for its consistency, professionalism, and great production, but with enough time or money all those features are pretty much attainable. What marks something of truly being worthwhile is going a step BEYOND merely being 'good' and actually taking a risk. The Deviant takes absolutely no risks at all.

That being said, I can't find much negative to say about this either. The music is catchy and good enough to listen to on occasion, even though it doesn't conjure much in the way of atmosphere or emotion. It's a workhorse album and that's fine if that's all you're craving. I just think they could do more with the tools they have instead of making merely 'good' music.