Cosmic Chaos

Ravencult is a pretty new black metal band (formed in 2001) but they already showcase some good talent here. Let's go into detail.

Cosmic Chaos was released in 2003. It's a demo, but shows good production quality and quite a large amount of great riffs, ranging from early Bathory-styled oldschool riffage to riffs similar to the ones you find on Samael's "Ceremony of the Opposites". Best examples of this stylemix can be found on "Cosmic Chaos Pandemonium". It switches between fast tremolo-picked verses to heavier/groovier Samael-like riffs. This technique works very well, especially your neck will realize that after a few nods. The bass is not very prominent, but adds the necessary low-end to the guitars.

The fast drumming consists mainly of blastbeats, but a decent amount of thrashy beats is thrown in to add some needed variation. The slower sections allow the drummer to use high-quality bass-snare beats with some decent, semi-technical fills.

Jim's vocal work is more reminiscent of oldschool Greek BM, at times sounding a bit like Sakis Tolis (Rotting Christ). Most of the time, it's a midrange raspy growl, which shows some Death Metal tendencies. Very fitting.

This might not be the most original demo around, but it mixes the two aforementioned styles very well and showcases some very strong riffs, which allows a pleasant listening experience. These guys seem to be signed now, so I hope we'll hear more from them soon.

Highlights: Cosmic Chaos Pandemonium, Deathcult Supremacy