Blood Delirium

I am highly disappointed by the second effort from the Horror Death Metal super group, The Ravenous. There first CD was the perfect blend of horror and death metal, adding samples and creepy slow break downs, followed by speedy guitar riffs and ripping solos by Chris Reifert and the always possessed sounding lyrics/vocals done all by Killjoy of Necrophagia fame.

Now onto the new album… 3 and a half years after the release of "Assembled in Blasphemy" we get "Blood Delirium". Recorded over the course of a year and a half (and it shows in the albums inconsistent flow). The lyrics are still the same sick gore/horror romps Killjoy has been writing for the last 2 decades, so no problem there, but the deliveries in which his vocals are brung to album are disappointing. The gurgles and screeches are normal but his growling shout seems way too high in the mix, at times drowning out the drums and guitars. As for the guitars, the riffs sound like exact copies from the first album. Tracks like "Razor Blade Salvation" and "Gore Whore" have good riffs and solos but are nothing new.

The overall pace of the album also dies down to a slow and boring halt from track 6 "Nightmares in a damaged brain" till the end. "Nightmares…" has slow acoustic guitar and spoken word vocals from killjoy. This is not a bad idea, seeing as how it’s a side project and all, but the guitar is utterly boring nothing original, nothing to make a single soul ever listen to the song again. As well as stupid lyrics this song that could have been cool ended up being 3 minutes of filler. After Nightmares in a damaged brain, the album picks back up the heavy guitars again in "A corpse is forever" but its nothing more than a filler song as well. The final 3 songs plod on boringly until the end the end of the album.

All in all, The Ravenous highly disappoints on their second full length and in my own opinion might as well put the group into its grave. Sadly one of death metals better side projects has ran out of interesting material after 2 full lengths and an EP. This album very well could have been trimmed down to 5 songs and made into an Extended Play but instead its turned into an 11-song bore-fest. So I would suggest the groups first effort and say skip to "Blood Delirium".

Best Tracks: 1. Razor Blade Salvation, 3,August Underground, and 4, Gorewhore