Ravenlight
Immemorial

I wrote positively about Ravenlight’s debut in 2020, but I also reserved myself over the risk of being repetitive in an already overcrowded genre. So, it is kind of exciting to check out Ravenlight’s second album. It certainly looks interesting, a very interesting artwork is covering the album, one that certainly would have me looking closer. Then I start thinking about those words of future concern I wrote in 2020 again, and forget about how exciting it looks, the excitement is now only about whether or not they manage to once again make a great album from a generic platform.

Female fronted symphonic power metal is the style, strong choruses, some classical undertones, and so on. Think any female fronted power metal and you have a decent picture of what to expect from this album. The singer is pretty good, nothing that stands out though. And stylewise I think they sound a bit less creative compared with the debut from 2020, Immemorial has a better sound but not as interesting songs. It is like they have improved their craft but forgot about the heart and the soul of an album and a song. This album lacks passion, it feels like a less interesting sequel to the debut album, like they were frozen in time just after the release of the first album and made a similar one with a better producer just after as they haven’t really evolved in any way, and my brain keeps reminding me about those words that said that “more albums like this will quickly become boring.” I wrote that in 2020 when I reviewed Project Genesis and when listening to Immemorial it is hard to disregard them as it is exactly what I feel; this album is boring!

Generic symphonic power metal songs with a generic vocalist, songs that doesn’t touch the heart and mind, songs without soul, and without life. Immemorial, is like a remake of an old movie, it often looks better, other aspects are also better, but more often than not it still comes up short compared with the original. That is often true in the metal genre overall, and definitely in this case. I find my mind zoning out, thinking of other things, not really listening to Ravenlight anymore. The only thing I wonder when listening to this album is whether I was wrong about the debut, but I listened to a few snippets just now and it sounds more interesting, and I like it much more than this one.

I can’t say that I was unpleasantly surprised because I was expecting this three years ago, but I would rather that what I said wasn’t so, but unfortunately it is boring with similar albums. Unfortunately, metal bands don’t seem to think so, perhaps they listen to a lot less music than I do, or perhaps they just like to hear the same thing over and over. But on my part it should be either exceptionally great or original to be the slightest interesting, this album is neither. There is no need to check out this second album by Ravenlight, I can guarantee you that you have heard many albums in the genre that are better.

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