Search - Famine :: Raven & The Reaping

Incredible

satan | uncasville,ct | 06/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"man this band came out of left field and knocked me on my a$$ in a good way they remind me of Living Sacrifice with some Dimebag riff crunches so far one of the best releases of the year definitely in the top 5 of '08"

Well Worth the Wait!!!

Mike Wright | San Jose, Ca | 06/03/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Well, i loved Embodyment when they were a metal band and being that The Famine is made up of the 3 main guys that were in Embodyment, you can tell why i am excited about this. This sounds alot like where Embodyment was going on their song "Halo of Winter" before they changed vocalists and went rock and roll.



They describe their style as "Suffocation playing Pantera and i somewhat agreed with that comment on their old demo songs, but not as much with this full length. I definately hear some Suffocation in the drumming and riffing, and i hear a little Pantera in the choppy grooves(think Far Beyond Driven's "Slaughtered"), but i dont hear much of the southern twang that was Pantera's signature. These guys remind me more of a mix of Machinehead, Lamb of God, and newer Decapitated with the ultra tight groove riffs and creative drum parts. The Vocals are pretty unique with their midrange growl and they are very easy to understand, which is not the case with 95% of death metal. The bass is pretty buried, but the tone of the recording is very clean and heavy as you would expect with producer Andreas Magnusson(Black Dahlia Murder, The Agony Scene, etc...)



The record's songwriting is very tight and there are alot of pop song structures used here, but that isnt really a bad thing at all. I like that there are definitive verses and choruses and these songs have a purpose and are not just a million riffs one after another. Alot of these riffs are memorable and the vocal lines have some catchiness to them. I love that there are no clean singing vocals on here and that there are no metalcore chugga breakdowns. This is very much american death/groove metal.



My only complaints are that there isnt a lot of variety in tempo or mood throughout the record and everything is very precise and straight forward. I would have like a little variety in mood some experimentation in the bridges or outros of the songs and maybe a few softer parts to make the heavy riffs more impactful, but overall i really dig this!!!



Highlight songs for me are "Behemoth", The South Will Rise", "Death Threat", and "Another Foot to the Shovel"



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