Ravager
Naxzgul Rising
6.5
After the kind of time I have been having, familiar sounds are actually very welcome...especially if the sounds are familiar because they remind me of one of my favorite records. It's...nice. Life weighing you down? Turn to family and friends. Or, if everyone hates your condescending ass, turn to people who don't know or care but make the music you like to hear. The effect is soothing, and calming. Like fresh baked bread and warm blankets on a cold night.
Unfortunately, this isn't the way you want to have your brutal death album described, or so I would think. It kinda' irks me, knowing how so many hold this style of music in contempt when it's so fucking dear to me. But even I know when a band - a good band, even - is just coloring in a book made from the original master artwork. So I may have good feelings about Ravager's Naxgul Rising, but I also have to be objective. And this is so much like early Morbid Angel that I don't really see how I can give it great scores.
The band has fire and brutality to spare, and I dig the shit out of that fact. And the guitar production is very meaty, almost too meaty. Up loud in my car stereo I really can't follow anything they are doing. It's one big moist tearing sound. But, of course, the drum production is fucked up, flat, plastic can shit. But I swear I am so used to it by now I don't really even notice until my jaws are locked and in agony from grinding my teeth. Subconsciously it grates on my nerves, but for the most part I have accepted and moved on I guess.
But the big concern here is that about a quarter of the way through the first song I realized I was listening to Ravager, but HEARING Morbid Angel. This was OK by me, mind you, but for the average metal fan this is probably not going to cut it. When there are so many incredible acts out there, making fresh and challenging metal, even for brutal death fans like me, a band like Ravager just seems like filler. Good filler. Meaty, hearty filler, but filler just the same. And the production doesn't help. The album is so thick and steamy that it's almost easier just to imagine you are listening to some other more recognizable act.
Bottom Line: Where does this leave you? This isn't a bad record, but it's really for die hard BD people like myself. Average metal fans in general would be nonplussed by this, I think. The anti-bROOTs would find this fairly useless. And I can understand that. If you are like me and can hear and feel all the variations on this given theme then you might want to look into this CD. It's not cliff hanging or anything, but it's a good ride through well known territory. A NICE ride. Isn't that NICE? It will be NICE to listen to this now and again.
