Entry 236 - Eternal Champion - Ravening Iron

 

It's been many years since I purchased a traditional heavy metal album. I tend to gravitate towards the more extreme end of the musical spectrum when it comes to the genre. So when I go out of my way to get an album from a genre I typically don't enjoy it better be really damn good.

I've been analyzing this record for the last day and a half to figure out why I dig it so much. It doesn't have any moments that rip your face off with heaviness. It's songs are short and to the point, there are no real epics here. The vocals fit but ultimately are just a dude singing. So much of this album points this just being another traditional metal album that I would normally have passed on.

But its not. While the record doesn't pummel your face like a death metal record would, the riffs w o r k. They flow, they groove, they gallop, they simply are excellent. The vocals, while they are not normally to my taste work really well here. The vocalist knows exactly what is required for the music and never tries to go beyond that. The end result fits exceedingly well together.

The band also has mastered the art of cutting out all the fat. This album is just over 35 minutes long, and every moment of that is packed with killer riffs and melodies.

Ravening Iron and Eternal Champion have broken through my biases and produced an album that I just can't get enough of. This thing just kicks ass.