RavenEye

The power of three is almost a cliché but in truth the best bands are based on the Power Trio concept and RavenEye prove that with a great, vaulting, sound and massive riffery.

I was a great fan of Oli Brown’s earlier incarnation as a Blues up and comer but this seems to be giving him room and impetus to move to where his playing and singing can be most effective and where his heart clearly lives.

The songs on the album have great variety in pace and power but there is a band identity showing through even though there are massive nods to Zeppelin, Soundgarden and even The Sword and clearly the three – Oli Brown guitar and lead vox, Aaron Spiers bass and Gunnar Olsen on drums – have the same outlook and ethos.

The facets of the album are many. Melody is very much at the heart of their music but tempered with massive riffs and some great harmonies. One of their strengths is great use of pace and rhythm to vary the songs and take them away from the dull buzz that so often benights bands that don’t understand the way that music needs to be built (I suspect Oli’s Blues background may have something to do with that) and producer Warren Riker has guided the band and built their slabs of sound but avoided separating the three and losing their connection. That the whole album was recorded in only 25 days is a testament to the application they must have had.

The massive power and speed of ‘Come With Me’ or the deep and brutal funk of ‘Walls’ are standouts and the sad beauty of ‘Eternity’ is one of the best tracks I’ve heard this year but of all the tracks here I actually found ‘Supernova’ hit the spot the best.

You have to understand, I think, that this is a debut album. The band have been playing for a few years and in that time they have developed their ideas, built the songs and learned what each of them can bring but it does also mean that in that time they have gone down a number of paths in terms of style and sound and all of them are represented here so that the deep essence of RavenEye is a little obscured.
That having been said, there isn’t a truly weak track here and a hell of a lot of strengths.