Ravenia
Beyond the Walls of Death

A band inspired by the epic scores of movies and probably also by their countrymen Nightwish. Their cover and logo looks very power metallic, so you would be forgiven if you dismiss them as a power metal band before you have heard them. I can’t recall that I have reviewed a band with more members than this band; according to the information I have they are nine members of this band – that is quite many. I should also add that this is their debut album, and it hides behind the walls of death.

It is quite epic, it is also grandiose with strong powerful melodies, operatic vocals – an ambitious album with great sound, and excellent production. The female vocalist has a relatively powerful voice but I think she lacks emotion, I also think that the album lacks variation – I think that it has a fairly static sound. 55 minutes playing time and that feels a tad on the long side, despite this being an album in a style where long albums tend not to be a problem. They do have some ideas that feel relatively forward thinking but overall the album lacks the sense of novelty you want in a new album and a new band, it is not one that makes you stop and take notice but it is a solid production nonetheless.

I think that this is a decent album, too good to be bad, too poor to be good – that is just about all you need to know about it really. The vocals are one very weak point; not the voice but the delivery of the lyrics feels stale and static – no passion. And I believe that with another vocalist I could have been writing about a real hit album, and not just an average (or slightly above). On the other side of the spectrum, the melodies and the instrumental side of this album is really excellent so there is much to like and some not to like. I am not saying that they should change vocalist but they clearly need more passion in the vocal delivery if they want to make something more interesting than this. But I think that fans of the genre should look at the album, it can be described as a solid effort that probably can appeal to the fans of the genre.

There are eight songs on this album and two of them stand out: the opening one in a negative way as it feels static and pretty dull; it opens well but dies pretty fast. The ending track We Stand as One is the highlight of the album, a great track that shows some of what this band seems to be capable of. I think that it feels a little bit like this is a case of what could have been, a glimpse of potential but an end result that is less than stellar – there is potential for greatness in this band, they show glimpses of that on this album but this album is not quite there. A good debut but hardly an album that writes itself into the music history books as one of the all time greats.

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