Ravencult-Temples of Torment

From what I’ve heard, not very many people in my country know about Ravencult (I don’t know about Europe). Ravencult has been one of my favorite black metal bands since they released this album. They have done many things for me like influencing the music I write, and opening my eyes to the underground black metal world (the extremely unknown bands). I have been searching everywhere for this album on CD, and if anyone can help me get a copy or knows where to get one, PLEASE tell me! Ravencult is my favorite Greek band of all time, and I currently know someone that is originally from Greece (currently in USA) that is friends with Ravencult. There is not much of a biography about them, although I did learn that they are quite popular in Turkey, Germany, Norway (home of black metal), Cyprus, and of course Greece. The band is in fact involved in the occult, and is open about it (both of which I admire). They are also one of the most creative and talented black metal bands I’ve ever heard.

I noticed on Spirit of Metal that they have had more than one vocalist, I’m not sure whether their current one is the one that does vocals on this album or not. Probably the first notable quality in their music is that they are one of the faster black metal bands. But they also have a sound extremely similar to that of Darkthrone’s, only faster. It is very important that in any type of music, that the drummer and bassist are very tight and on tempo. And the Ravencult bassist is very tight with the drummer, on top of their bassist being one of the best bassists in black metal. They don’t overdo the treble in the overall sound. It seems that they have the equalizer set to something like the “classical” setting (where all of the frequencies are the same volume). I have noticed that in almost all of the Greek bands that I have heard, they occasionally use a certain keyboard sound that really gives the music an atmospheric sound. Another thing that one finds in this band that is not commonly found among black metal is that the vocalist has really mastered the black metal vocal style. He takes this, and ads sort of a scream to it to make the vocals sound amazing.

I discovered this band via YouTube on this video someone put together showing his favorite black metal bands. The specific song by Ravencult that was played was “Commence the Burning of the Heavens”, which still remains my favorite song on the album. The song that reminds me of Darkthrone the most is “The Needles of Truth”. This is mainly due to the lyrics being said almost completely off tempo which gives the song an interesting atmosphere. “Blessed in Heresy” is a song full of technical drumming. Overall I would give this album a perfect score due to the fact that I can’t listen to it without listening to the entire album and that there isn’t a song on here that I don’t completely enjoy.