Raven Black Night

Album Title: 
Barbarian Winter
Release Date: 
Friday, February 15, 2013
Distribution: 
Review Type: 

These guys have been around a really long time, and they play a style of classic/power metal that is pretty much what you'd expect. There are some nice melodic and harmonic structures in this album that tie Raven Black Night quite strongly to the power metal subgenre; but at the same time there are enough elements of your classic metal to almost roll this release over into speed and doom metal. Strongly rooted in the eighties, the band has quite a lot to offer. Of course nowadays it is quite impossible to reinvent doom/heavy metal, and I am quite certain that Raven Black Night know that fact. But still they do their very best not to sound like any other genre band, and in that they succeed. They still explore the Mercyful Fate/Manilla Road/Candlemass side of heavy metal with Jim Petkoff’s characteristic love or hate voice, which at first sounds off-key, lacking a little power, but as the album continues, it gains in strength, though he whines too much. With almost 60 minutes of playing time you get a lot of music for your money and songs like rustic gloomy title track or the up tempo “Mystery angel” can without doubt be labelled classy. Jim Pettkof is once again impressive, displaying a wide variety of influences on his playing, and yet integrating them all seamlessly to create his own sound. He is truly one of those rare guitarists that is equally talented as both a riffer and a soloist.

They once again impressed me yet I like their debut Choose The Dark (2005) slightly better.

80/100