Madog - Raven

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MADOG unleash their third album, an intense guitar driven beauty called “Raven”, they throw every bit of raw power they have at their disposal and inject it directly into these twelve-tracks on display. Opening as a concept album with the natural sound of ravens with an eerie ambient glaze, when the second tracks explodes “Raven” with its in-your-face precision a theme is instantly set of what is to come.

As the envelope of dense-sonic noise opens fully, the escapades of the Austrian quartet is revealed in full, “Monstergate” is on the side of doom-Metal to a point, the band is incredible, working extremely well as a unit, all the while making “Raven” a listenable affair, even on “Monstergate” where they execute break-neck speed riffs backed with thundering drums and throbbing bass.  Lead singer Hansi Zedrosser has a knack at delivering the tongue-in-cheek lyrics with a passion, his voice does not split glass with high-pitched screams but keeps it flowing more so, an interesting vocal-delivery than a audio-acrobatic is exhibition.

“Sinner” opens with an almost eastern feel, a sitar sound before the star of this show comes in, that being guitarist Alex Humer, his work is astounding throughout, on “Hell Defender” he outshines Zedrosser at times burying him under the weight of riffage. A highlight comes in the form of the full-throttle “Riding For The Priest”, a song which cleverly stutters to a start, the drum work by Lukas Lobnig becomes more prominent here, the vocals match the music pound for pound as they ride a helter-skelter of nostalgic-style power-Metal.

“Children’s Cry” gives us more of what came before, the band is relentless, rarely coming up for air and pushing forward constantly, “Loud” opens with high-guitar strokes, as both guitar and bass share the spotlight, a mix of well executed techniques make this another accessible tune. The magnificent acoustic picking of “Glorious” lures the listener into a false sense of security, there is no lighter in the air anthemic ballad here.  The following and last track “Out In The Fields” follows the same construction, a nice blending of clean-acoustic and distortion which bleeds and beams into different directions.

MADOG continue to pump out loud metal, the heart of “Raven” is one gigantic-distorted guitar lick which flexes in different directions while still staying connected. Overall “Raven” is not a weak album, singer Hansi Zedrosser may sound to struggle at times but that may simply be his style of delivery, but anyone would struggle under the weight of noise the other three musicians display.

Songwriting: 7
Originality: 8
Memorability: 8
Production: 8