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We Are Become Death

      
         
         
         
     
             
Ravenous are a thrash metal band from the UK formed in 2008, releasing the bands debut album 'We Are Become Death' in 2013.    
             
The band - David Game (vocals and guitar), Richard Giles (drums), Dave Foster (guitar), and Leon Maidment (bass) - began their career playing covers, quickly moving onto original material, and developing a thrash come groove metal sound similar to the likes of Metallica, Machine Head and Pantera. The bands debut album features nine songs across fifty five ferocious yet melodic minutes, each and every one delivered at pace with plenty of head banging opportunities. Opening song 'Abhor', comes storming out of the blocks with a tonne of aggression and a lot of menace, Ravenous sounding hungry as 'We Are Become Death' angrily explodes into life! The pace and power is phenomenal, 'Abhor' an incredible smack right between the eyes to wake everyone up to begin head banging - for head banging you will do! And furiously too! What a sensational way to open your debut album, an album that roars on with 'Reverse (Sympathy)', and a Pantera like guitar chug, the mighty sound of groove metal filling the air. The first two songs have been immediate head turners, the British outfit slamming listeners to the floor with an all conquering sonic barrage!    
             
And with a dramatic change in atmosphere, 'Suffocate' opens with a short mellow passage before striding into life with a ground shuddering foot stomp - the glorious sound of groove come thrash metal soaring across the airways. The band are rattling like a freight train here, 'Suffocate' maintaining the menace driven metal on offer! And with an explosion of all out thrash, 'Deathstiny' rampages forth at the fastest pace since the album began - going as far to echo the iconic gallop of traditional heavy metal! Yes readers, Ravenous are quite happy to straddle genre borders to attract a very wide array of listeners - 'Easter Island (We Are Become Death)' returning the mellowness heard briefly earlier. 'Easter Island (We Are Become Death)' has a wonderfully crafted acoustic kind of ballad style intro before coming alive in a blaze of head banging hard rock and dramatic tempo changes! It's a nineties era Metallica sound here for me, Ravenous showing their softer side - but not too soft! The bands self titled song 'Ravenous', melds pace with power, chunky guitar riffing leading the way as the band return the urgency of the album opener! And with an almighty foot stomping attitude too, the chorus break is aggressively in your face, with "ravenous, you make me ravenous" sung with so much menace it's scary!    
             
All of the songs on offer exceed five minutes in length, with five of them stretching past the six minute mark - plenty of thrash to get your teeth into that's for sure! A haunting, almost chilling acoustic like ballad aura introduces 'Alone', before the most emphatic change in tempo kicks in and the remainder of 'Alone' is just a frenetic blur as the band change through the gears to race ahead at full throttle! The amount of groove metal Ravenous have in their arsenal is impressive, 'We Are Become Death' a cracking thrash come groove come traditional heavy metal album - an album that still has two more songs on offer, the first of which 'The Architect', is a very heavy riff driven romp with tonnes of everything the band are so good at! I really can't fault this album, one of the best debuts I've heard for a very long time - 'The Strawman' bringing 'We Are Become Death' to a close in a more up tempo fashion, the bands (I guess we can call it trademark) chunky groove riffing leading the way. And the head banging opportunities across the last fifty five minutes are endless, my head hasn't stopped moving vigorously forward and back since the album began!    
             
Overall, chunky guitar riffs, power, pace and great vocals, this is a thrash metal album worthy of a place next to Metallica and Pantera.    
             
             
Review by Iron Mathew Collins    
             
Reviewed for Coffee Jingle Records    
             
             
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