Joe:
Often times, i find myself not wanting to listen to bands that classify themselves under the "Christian" label. That very label has become synonymous with preachy, shove views down your throat additudes of overindulgence, but from time to time I look past the label and give bands a listen and its paid of big time. Some of my favorite bands of all time include Living Sacrifice and Extol. Though their message isnt always something I identify with, but the musicianship and compositions are just too good to ignore, so I found myself checking this band out a few monthes ago and was pleasantly surprised.
Solid State recording artists, The Famine come at thier audience with a Death Metal and Gindcore infused sound that bring to mind bands such as Living Sacrifice, Through The Eyes Of The Dead, and Suffocation. Some may remember 3/5s of this band from their previous works in the Seminal Christian band EMBODYMENT. They have some legit chops as a product of being seasonsed veterans and thier lyrics are minimal in the preachy area, so they have allowed this album to be accessable by all audiences and not just those of the christian faith. Thier Debut Full Length " The Raven And The Reaping" has a great pace. After the albums short intro of chant and abience it keeps a high energy pace the entire time. No clean breaks, just riffage all the way through.
Though, a pretty standard metal band by definition, they happen to be great at crafting thier songs, so the songs remain interesting the entire way through. Something that really comes out with this album is the production. Its got a really guitar heavy mix, its real gritty, yet polished at the same time. Which is refreshing after the slew over HIGHLY over produced metal albums that end up sounding like a mass of keyboards rather than people actually playing guitars and drums.
The downfall of this album might lye in their reluctance to push any boundaries in thier genre. The songs are well crafted but you deffinately won't hear anything new on this release, but being a reletively new band that is on thier first full legnth, it's forgivable and leaves "The Raven And The Reaping" as [hopefully] a preview of things to come as this sounds as if they are still trying to feel out the style of the project.
My Rating: 3/5
Solid State recording artists, The Famine come at thier audience with a Death Metal and Gindcore infused sound that bring to mind bands such as Living Sacrifice, Through The Eyes Of The Dead, and Suffocation. Some may remember 3/5s of this band from their previous works in the Seminal Christian band EMBODYMENT. They have some legit chops as a product of being seasonsed veterans and thier lyrics are minimal in the preachy area, so they have allowed this album to be accessable by all audiences and not just those of the christian faith. Thier Debut Full Length " The Raven And The Reaping" has a great pace. After the albums short intro of chant and abience it keeps a high energy pace the entire time. No clean breaks, just riffage all the way through.
Though, a pretty standard metal band by definition, they happen to be great at crafting thier songs, so the songs remain interesting the entire way through. Something that really comes out with this album is the production. Its got a really guitar heavy mix, its real gritty, yet polished at the same time. Which is refreshing after the slew over HIGHLY over produced metal albums that end up sounding like a mass of keyboards rather than people actually playing guitars and drums.
The downfall of this album might lye in their reluctance to push any boundaries in thier genre. The songs are well crafted but you deffinately won't hear anything new on this release, but being a reletively new band that is on thier first full legnth, it's forgivable and leaves "The Raven And The Reaping" as [hopefully] a preview of things to come as this sounds as if they are still trying to feel out the style of the project.
My Rating: 3/5
Luke:
Alright. This was a big one for me I think. I was an enormous fan of these guys previous band, Embodyment. Well, let me rephrase that. I was a huge fan of that bands demos and their first release on Solidstate Records, "Embrace the Eternal." So suffice it to say, I was on it when these guys released their demos on their myspace and I was pretty pleased with what I heard. Although not exactly an Embodyment copy, I could see some progression from then to now and I anticipated greatness with this record.
What I liked about Embodyment was their ability to craft excellent metal songs with memorable riffs and, almost more importantly, memorable vocal lines. Unfortunately, my expectations were not met with "The Raven and The Reaping." For all of my anticipation, I've listened to this album a few times now and to be honest, I can't remember a single riff or lyric to the whole thing. It's not that the riffs or the vocal lines are bad by any means. To me, they're just so run of the mill. As Joe said, they certainly aren't breaking any new ground with this release and I didn't necessarily expect them to. But at the very least, I expected to be humming riffs or vocals in my head for a few weeks following. And that didn't happen. This is basically a death metal album with lots of metalcore leanings.
The production is fantastic though. Real gritty with an excellent clarity if that's not an oxymoron. Andreas Magnusson recorded this at his Red Planet Studios in Richmond Virginia where he's done a slew of other work including records from Scarlet, The Black Dahlia Murder, etc. So at the very least, you can plan on a good sounding record.
I'm sure there are quite a few kids who will slather over this. I believe this band is going to be touring with Demonhunter soon which, to me, is silly but it makes sense. I just wish they'd push their boundaries a bit more and jump full on into the brutality that I know they're capable of. I'm not going to write The Famine off just yet... I'll give it to the next record for something mindblowing. If they last that long. I won't be spinning this very often.
2/5
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