New Artist Alert: Ravenous

It's all been a little quiet on the rock front round here lately but no matter, Ravenous have landed and are well and truly flying the flag for thrash-metal proudly and (extremely) loudly. Ravenous are a four-piece thrash/groove-metal band from Southampton, UK and have been performing under the name since 2008. The group started life as a covers band but, after a realisation that originals was the way to go, Ravenous returned to its rawer roots and lyrical structure. With 'an increasing appetite for anthemic and meaningful composition', the band have released their debut album 'We Are Become Death', for which you can hear an audio mash-up below.

The first single, Easter Island (We Are Become Death), is accompanied by the band's debut video which ties a bow (or perhaps chain is more apt?) around this extremely professional looking and sounding package. There's no mistaking who the band are with the extended slow-paced intro full of guitar-picked arpeggios and cymbal washes but once things finally kick in at the 1.18 mark, you know Ravenous have landed. The track is pounding and thrashes along packed full with powerful vocals, crunching guitars, a sloshy open-hats groove, and some double-pedal rolls for good measure. It's definitely a lot friendlier than the real screamo-metal stuff I sometimes find it hard to say nice things about; there's a real 'musical' feel to the music that you just can't help but nod along. It certainly packs an anthemic punch as promised, before sliding into the half-time feel of the intro and allowing the listener some thinking time. It isn't long though before we're dragged kicking and screaming as the band riles up again and takes us on a textured journey through the heart of the song, passing an extended-musical section that still has my foot tapping. Plenty of axe-wielding and some more tempo-stretching later, I felt like I've listened to the entire album rather than the first-single; at almost seven minutes long it's a beast of a track but I've loved every minute of it.

Ravenous perform regularly around the South of England, so be sure to check out the band's Facebook to keep up to date. You can listen to the album mash-up here, and the video for Easter Island is below. We Are Become Death will be released online on 16th Feb under Coffee Jingle Records.