Destruction of the Void

The exodus of Christian Lindersson just a short time prior to the sophomore effort, and arguably the true beginning of Count Raven, what was thought to be a curse turned out to be a dual blessing for each party. In analyzing the overt Black Sabbath tendencies of this Swedish outfit, it becomes only fitting that Fodde’s Ozzy Osbourne-like bellows should become the voice of the arrangement. Likewise, Lindersson’s plainer style served to be a well suited stand-in for that of Wino and Reagers when Saint Vitus released “Children Of Doom”, as well as his standout works with Terra Firma and Lord Vicar after his temporary collaboration with an earlier proponent of old school, traditional gloom and doom. But no matter how one looks at it, “Destruction Of The Void” definitely offers up something that is indicative of the traditional label given its similarity with Sabbath, yet is updated enough to sound as if Ozzy had reunited with Iommi and company in the early 90s instead of Dio and actually put together some solid music.

Each band that approaches this genre brings with it a different, and more concentrated dose of what was offered up by the foursome of Birmingham in the early 70s, and Count Raven’s stock and trade has always been the political side of the paradigm. While their song structuring and rhythm section is more in line with the tightness that became the rule of their forefathers circa “Master Of Reality” and “Vol. 4”, the actual riff set is a bit more primitive and less thrashing, in the vain of simpler numbers such as “Hand Of Doom” and “N.I.B.”. The songs generally tend to hold on to an idea and allow it to mature, to the point of flirting with a droning character. The drum and bass work differs heavily from the generally cliché jam band character of the Geezer and Ward approach, and instead largely keeps things in full harmony with the guitar lines and concentrates on creating a heavy, trudging foundation upon which Fodde’s nasally tinged notes will stomp the ground.

But while all of this would suggest a very retro sound in line with that of Saint Vitus, the production is where things really differ strongly. Between the crunchy tone of the guitars and the loud and lustrous reverberations of the drums, a posh and powerful sound in line with “The Headless Cross” or “The Eternal Idol” is closer to what emerges. Nevertheless, when listening to the extremely simple and highly repetitive approach of “Until Death Do Us Part” and “Angel Of Death” shows a much less triumphant picture where the world goes through vicious cycles of insanity and destruction, and it seems Fodde and company are the only ones to actually notice and decry it. In fact, this collection of unfortunate socio-political anthems articulates the same sense of hopelessness on a macro scale as Vitus tends to from the individual perspective. Add to the equation a few well placed ambient keyboard additives, and a darker version of the political cynicism that was gripping the world in the early 90s meets with an 80s sound where the arrangement is large, and the tone is free of ironic sarcasm.

While the vast majority of what is to be heard on here is a typical regimented dose of mostly slow and sometimes upper tempo heavy rock work, there are a few auspicious shifts in sound that are a bit more extreme than tends to be commonplace for this band. “No One’s Hero” actually ventures a little bit into the thrashing character that was occasionally employed early on by Vitus and Trouble, presenting a primitive speed metal riff with a driving beat, while Fodde vocally vents his disgust with hypocritical people laboring under the illusion of righteousness. And while ambient keyboard instrumentals have always been Count Raven’s way of recapturing those side stage instrumentals that Sabbath would often dabble with between rocking too loud and scary for their time, here they seem all the more beautiful and pristine, particularly that of “Northern Lights”, which rivals some of the more restful and brilliant ambient work that was heard on some of Burzum’s offerings at around this time.

While this tends to be the most highly regarded of Count Raven’s offerings amongst doom enthusiasts who have given this music the love it so desperately needs, I always find myself drawn a little closer to “High On Infinity”, in no small part due to the slightly progressive tendencies it displayed. But anyone who wonders why the hell Sabbath can’t write some quality songs with Ozzy anymore (hint: Ozzy’s ego and obsession with his own image plays a big part), stop obsessing over what will likely not change until hell freezes over and indulge in something that will satisfy that craving for cynical, dark, forbidding metallic rock with an eye to both the present (1992) and the past. You’ll probably make a meaningful change in things by listening to this album and enjoying yourself rather than wasting your time out on the streets with a picket sign that few will ever bothering reading while they filter through their consumer driven lives.

Count Raven's second effort, "Destruction Of The Void", is, pretty simply, a hell of an album. It's also nice that Fodde wasn't too downhearted by the departure of Chritte, so he decided to do the job himself-and does pretty good. The significant difference here is better, more mature composition. The songs are just more well-organized, well-structured and, actually, more diverse than the ones on the debut.

But, since life is always "some you win, some you lose", Fodde's vocals are good, he wrote the music himself so he knows how to express the feeling. But he ain't Chritte, and he probably knows it himself. "Destruction Of The Void" with Chritte behind the microphone would be not only a 100/100 album, it would be the bloody World War III, undoubtedly.

Apart from the singer and the musical arrangements, little has changed in terms of the music. Traditional doom metal, possibly a bit slower and doomier than the debut but still with that Sabbath rock feeling in it. Awesome riffs build up awesome songs, like "Until Death Do Us Part", "Hippies Triumph" or "Leaving The Warzone", which is one of the best Count Raven songs out there. "The Final Journey" is also spectacular, and all in all, a football match between "Storm Warning" and "Destruction Of The Void" would end up as a 1-1 draw. Better music draws with the better vocal performance. Fair result.

It was close to two years ago, while having heard a few classic albums like Candlemass’ Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, the majority of the sub-genre of doom metal was something alien to me and didn’t seem to be the most exciting realm of music to explore at the time, when my cousin, a passionate long-time metal listener gave me a huge CD-wallet containing plenty of doom and death metal albums. I remember two bands having the highest impact on me and my view of doom metal, Reverend Bizarre and Count Raven, with this album, Destruction of the Void, being my first exposure to the latter.

Count Raven are a traditional doom metal band from Sweden and were always overshadowed by fellow countrymen’s Candlemass’ fame, which is a real shame, as in my opinion they would deserve far more recognition than they receive, especially in the “general” metal scene. This is Count Raven’s second album; the first after former vocalist Christian “Chritus” Lindersson’s who currently is the frontman of Lord Vicar, departure to Saint Vitus. On this album it is guitarist Dan Fondelius who takes over singing duties, which isn’t exactly something new for him as he already did vocals on the band’s two demos. Even though Chritus is a very good vocalist and did a stellar job on Count Raven’s debut, I think that Dan adds more charisma and uniqueness to this album than Chritus could have done, by utilizing a vocal style highly reminiscent of Ozzy Osbourne, actually I have not heard any other singer sounding that close to Ozzy in his prime time while at the same time still maintaining a very distinctive sound. Strong vocals are (obviously if you look at the rating I have given this album) not the only highlight of Destruction of the Void. What never ceases to amaze me when listening to this album, is the amount of variety Count Raven have achieved within the narrow boundaries of the traditional doom metal genre, which the band only crosses on two tracks, the album’s third track, Northern Lights and its closer, Europa, two instrumental keyboard pieces one would not expect on a traditional doom metal album. These songs possess an obvious 70s psychedelic vibe, particularly Northern Lights with its short synth brass solo part sounds as if the band was not only listening to Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus excessively, but also to Pink Floyd.

Apart from these two exceptions I have mentioned, all the songs can be called doom metal anthems at their best, from the first plodding beats on the hi-hat and doomy riffs of the opener Until Death Do Us Part to the last notes of No One’s Hero, a track, which shows Count Raven’s ability to also write great songs at a, for doom metal mind you, quite high tempo, there is excellent quality in abundance. Aside from being an impressive vocalist, Dan Fondelius is a prime creator of powerful riffs too, riffs and melodies, which just get stuck in the listener’s ears and will not get out of their in quite some time (I’d like to mention the main riff of Until Death Do Us Part here, as well as countless, hell, to some extent all of the other riffs on this album). Something that is quite notable about Count Raven as a doom metal band in general, is the kind of atmosphere they create. Through the music and the lyrics, which I will go into detail about later on, Count Raven do not cast one into misery and depression, the atmosphere on Destruction of the Void is indeed a relatively positive one. Although Count Raven feature a rather atypical atmosphere and message, this album still displays one of doom metal’s key elements, which is used to great success here: repetition. Every song consists of about only three to five riffs, but as I said before, these riffs are among the best in traditional doom metal. On most of the songs on Destruction of the Void, Dan also demonstrates that he is able to play a fitting solo when needed, in these parts it becomes clear that not technicality is his goal when writing a solo, but a sound placing in the context of the song and the conveyance of emotion through melody.

You may have noticed that I have spent quite some time describing Count Raven’s frontman, so I will try to also do the two other band members justice as their playing is just as essential for Count Raven’s overall sound as is Dan’s. Bassist Tommy “Wilbur” Eriksson has a very interesting tone, the plucking sound of his playing, I am quite sure that he uses a pick, is highly prominent most of the time. Wilbur’s basslines do not follow Dan’s guitar all of the time, one of his most striking parts is the bass intro of Leaving the Warzone, which is backed up by keyboards and is repeated a few times throughout the song. Drummer Christer Petersson manages to create interesting simple, yet varying rhythms on which the riffs are built on. He uses hi-hat and cymbals a lot to keep the tempo and also knows where to throw in a fill, all in all he is neither the most technical nor the most creative drummer out there, but what I expect from a doom metal drummer, he fulfils perfectly.

I mentioned that instead of dealing with, well doom, Count Raven’s lyrics are used to transport a generally positive and, which may but should not turn some people off, partially Christian message. To Dan’s defence it must be said that he does not blindly preach the church’s point of view but rather criticizes mainstream Christianity and people who commit political crimes in the name of religion:

“A Christian you say you are
I’m saying that you're misusing His name
You're a liar, you've gone too far
When He comes you'll be the one to blame”

Other than that social criticism is a prevalent lyrical theme, the anti-war song Leaving the Warzone is a good example of the coverage of this topic. I’m convinced that I did not nearly point out well enough why Count Raven’s Destruction of the Void is one of the essential classics of traditional doom metal and why I can’t understand its being neglected by many metal listeners, so please go out buy this album and listen to it for yourself. It was re-released in 2005 with two bonus tracks from Count Raven’s second demo, which are quite good and do not really distract from the album’s flow but do not stand a chance against the songs on Destruction of the Void either, so you do not have any excuse not to listen to this.