The Ravenous - Assembled In Blasphemy
Hammerheart Records
Death/Gore Metal
10 songs (34'17)
Release year: 2000
Hammerheart Records
Reviewed by Crims
Archive review

The Ravenous is/was a one time project (as far as I know) consisting of Chris Reifert (Autopsy), Killjoy (Necrophagia), and Danny Lilker (ex-Anthrax, SOD, Brutal Truth). The band’s music is very similar to Autopsy, as The Ravenous plays the same type of over the top, sludgy, sickening, Death/Gore Metal as Autopsy did; the only difference is, at the time, Autopsy was original and unique. However, that does not mean The Ravenous don’t have their own merits too.

There still are not that many well-known bands that play this style of Metal, yeah, there are a lot of Gore bands, but they usually aren’t this sludgy or doomy. I suppose it would be best to mention the high points first, because there definitely are some. The two vocal style attack gives the songs a lot of character, and both the traditional growl, and the sickening shriek (or corpse shrieks as listed in the booklet) fit the music perfectly. The guitar sound is very interesting, and much like in Autopsy, Reifert has come up with some riffs that are pure blasphemy; some Black Metal bands could learn a thing or two from Reifert. Surprisingly enough, too, the leads fit the music nicely, despite having a cleaner than expected tone. The songs in general tend to move between frantic Gore Metal and sludgy doom within seconds. This aspect helps gives the CD a decent amount of variation, and the inclusion of two very brief acoustic parts over the regular music is unexpected and pleasing.

Now the low points: most of the songs follow the same principle and even though the sludge sections give the songs and CD good variation, as mentioned, they aren’t that interesting and the only real purpose they serve is so that you don’t get tired of hearing same bass/snare pattern (the drumming gets repetitive on some songs, despite being all-over-the-place on others) over the occasionally suspicious sounding riff, that gives off the impression that you’ve heard it before. There are only 8 songs on this release (with an intro and outro to give 10 tracks overall), and all are very short except for Keep My Grave Open, but this track doesn’t really count since the first half of the section is mostly sound effects. There definitely are some memorable tracks that leap above the rest such as Dead Cut Up And Ready To Fuck and Hallucinations Of A Deranged Mind. I recommend this release to Autopsy and Gore Metal fans, but everyone else stay clear.

Killing Songs :
Dead Cut Up And Ready To Fuck , Feasting From The Wound, Assembled In Blasphemy, Hallucinations Of A Deranged Mind
Crims quoted 72 / 100
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