The Raven Age – “Darkness Will Rise” [Album Review]

Having already supported metal giants like Iron Maiden as well as being labelled as the UK’s next brightest metal hope, you could say there is much pressure being heaped on the shoulders of a bunch of friends who came together through a love of metalcore and epic film scores. Can they handle it? Well, listening to the booming, soaring metal demonstrated on their debut album Darkness Will Rise, there is no reason to doubt that the UK shredders can’t live up to expectations.

With a heavy dose of Killswitch Engage metalcore making up the core of their sound, The Raven Age are all about big-sounding epic metal as the likes of “Promised Land” and “The Merciful One” demonstrate through a barrage of galloping guitars, thundering drums and clean, crisp vocals. The former sitting comfortably in the Killswitch school of metalcore while the latter sitting more at home alongside the likes of Bullet For My Valentine.

Elsewhere the dramatic “Salem’s Fate” and “The Dying Embers Of Life” taking things down a more melodic route. However, it’s when the band sit their sound right in the middle spot between crunching metalcore and haunting melodies that they really show their potential as they do on “The Merciful One”.

Of course, as with As Lions, much will probably be made of their high-up connections (Maiden tour / Harris – do the math) but, as with As Lions, there is plenty more to The Raven Age than having a famous relative. Darkness Will Rise is a solid album which, while wearing its influences proudly on its sleeves, puts in a solid shift and is a more than impressive start to The Raven Age’s career. Expect to see more of this group in the coming eighteen months.

Darkness Will Rise Track Listing:

01. Darkness Will Rise
02. Promised Land
03. Age Of The Raven
04. The Death March
05. Salem’s Fate
06. The Merciful One
07. Eye Among The Blind
08. Winds Of Change
09. Trapped Within The Shadows
10. My Revenge
11. The Dying Embers Of Life
12. Angel In Disgrace
13. Behind The Mask

Run Time: 74:56
Release Date: March 17, 2017

Check out the track “Promised Land”