Eyes of the Raven - Seasons End EP (2016)

Genre - Heavy Metal / Groove Metal / Hard Rock / Biker Rock

Label - Self Released

Track listing:

01 - Cast The First Stone

02 - Lessons In Blasphemy

03 - Redeemer

04 - Sometimes Bruised, Never Broken

05 - Bury Your Demons

Formed in 2009, Eyes of the Raven are a Groove metal/Stoner band from the Black Country England. Brought up on Black Sabbath, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Entombed and Anthrax to name a few, the collective souls of Eyes of the Raven became solid honest beer drinking musicians with the determination to write and play heavy as hell riffage.
Now to say that this Ep has been a long time coming is major understatement, we are talking Chinese Democracy anticipation here, with the band threatening to drop this EP since 2010! That creates a strange problem though, as most of the fans ever growing fan base will already be very familiar with all of the five tracks on offer here, which to be honest does take a little away from the excitement of the release, but on the other hand it is great to finally have definitive recorded versions of the songs that they have been loving so much at the live show!

So how does the EP sound? Well pretty darn good to be frank. With Seasons End, Eyes of the Raven deliver five great well written and performed tracks, all of them killer with no fillers to be seen anywhere!
One of the bands greatest assets is the plain and simple fact that it is very hard to pigeon hole their sound, yes they are a metal band with many stoner and groove metal elements on display, but there are also some great hard rock sensibilities within their music to, so instead of trying to pigeon hole their sound you just kick back relax and enjoy the bloody music!
Seasons End opens up with Cast The First Stone, a dirty swaggering slab of hard rocking groove metal, pretty much a call to arms, a battle cry as such and therefore a more than fitting opener!
Next up we have Lessons In Blasphemy, the bands thunderous middle fingered salute to organised religion, that sees vocalist Dave Horan showcasing his pipes to great effect. Redeemer follows, with stoner metal styled opening, that opens up in to quick tempo-ed rocker with some Black Sabbath overtones. Sometimes Bruised, Never Broken is the Ep's penultimate track, its also the bands anthem, a great song of defiance and resilience! Seasons End closes out with its heaviest track, the brilliant Bury Your Demons. This thunderous track just seethes with an anger that  sweeps the listener along, leaving them hungry for more as the EP comes to an all too soon end!

Well worth checking out and highly recommended!

Rating: 10/10

Eyes Of The Raven - From The Ashes (Live Demo)

Eyes of the Raven are a 5 piece groove metal band from the west Midlands.

From The Ashes is their debut recording, a demo recorded live at Base Studios in Stourbridge (West Midlands) earlier this month.

The band have a very heavy sound, quite bassy, but very clear and also quite melodic. One of the first things that I noticed is that Dave Horan manages to keep his vocals very melodic, and never resorts to ineligible growling as do many other bands that play similar music to Eyes Of The Raven.
For a band that has only really been together for a few months (the lineup was completed Autumn 2009 when James McHugh (lead guitar) joined up with fellow band members Dave Horan (vocals), Damon Cartwright (drums), Matt Walters (bass) and Ross Pickett (Rhythm guitar / Vocals), the songs are very well structured, and well just seem to flow.

From the Ashes brings us six tracks,

‘I’m Gone’ - a mid to up tempo grinding metal track, live these riff’s must be brutal!

‘Cause and Effect’ – a heavy up tempo rocker, again some great riffs and some interesting tempo changes.

‘From The Ashes’ - title track of the demo, and a great little song, musically quite melodic, yet still very heavy!

‘Reflections’ – a great number any band would be proud of, gentle guitar intro with a nice solo over the top, before breaking into a real ass kicker of a track with some riff Metallica would be proud of!

‘Echoes’ – The opening of this track feels very familiar, it has a real traditional metal maybe even NWOBHM feel to it, again another example of the bands softer side showing that they are not just all about bone crunching riffs.

‘My Life’ – closing track, is an up tempo rocker, bone crunchingly heavy.

Every song has its own appeal but I would have to say that the standouts for me are the last four, but although the songs are great, and the band as tight as you can get, the demo has its faults!

Production wise mainly, most of the time the lead guitar is way too low in the mix, barely audible at times, and the same can be said too for Ross’s backing vocals as for most of the songs they seem to get buried beneath the bass and rhythm guitar, on a personal note I’d love the rhythm guitar to have a cleaner sound, less bassy and sludgy. A good producer could really give the songs the platform that these songs clearly deserve, but even with the production they have the quality of the songs shines through.
If you like your music heavy, then I see no reason why you won’t love Eyes Of The Raven.

From The Ashes is available to download for free from the bands website, go on check it out you’ve nothing too loose!

Website - http://eyesoftheraven.freeiz.com/
Rating – For the band and songs 9/10
             For the production 4/10