Black Raven – The Day of the Raven
Self-Released – 2007
By Adam McAuley
Black Raven plays a tuneful form of heavy metal that recalls the classics. There is an uplifting aura to the songs that a band like
Manowar would conjure in the past. However, this Italian band is more related to straight up traditional metal than that act. Visions of
Judas Priest enter the mind when listening to
Black Raven.
There is a need to bring out the glory of heavy metal with this act and the songs have a reasonably pristine aura to do that. Don’t expect to be able to feel the love for metal that was found when listening to the classic recordings of
Judas Priest, however, as the music here isn’t as passionately performed on the whole. Unusually, Black Raven also reminds me of the hard rock band
Warrior Soul, especially in the impassioned vocal performance area. Through this entire five-track demo,
The Day of the Raven, there is some excitement created, but the band never creates a distinguishable enough sound to stand out from the pack. “Riders of the Grave” causes the pulse to elevate somewhat and is the most addictive track to be found on the demo. There isn’t really enough material here to make a huge impact, however, and the remainder of the tracks following that one only cruise by without adding enough charisma to the overall package.
The music on the disc is still well performed and memorable enough.
Black Raven will certainly find their niche amongst fans of the classic style and there’s no denying they have a good grasp of this type of music. They do not do quite enough to provide a new slant to the music traditional metal has already seen in the past, however, and for this reason
The Day of the Raven only gets a moderate recommendation.
Official Black Raven Band Website
Official Black Raven My Space