Rave The Reqviem

Rave The Reqviem

Written by: MN on 30/07/2014 16:11:35

We have gotten to a point in history where a marginal amount of musical territory has been trodden, but the beauty of it all is that not all leaves have been left unturned - Somehow the art of music has no boundaries and things will always be pushed over the edge into the unseen and unheard. New visionaries that challenge the preconceived formulas, which were laid down by the pioneers of every genre, ultimately bring forth an entirely new genre known as cross-over. I can predict that a fair amount of readers are rolling their eyes, and with good reason. Cross-over bands often turn into a mesh where the mixing pot exhumes little sense of balance, like a cook overloading on unnecessary spices in a dish.

Bands like The Bunny The Bear are scolded for this exact problem, the mixing of genres in this case just has no style, it is truly the best example of a crossover band that fail miserably. That being said, there are occasions where the potpourri blend works, Rave The Reqviem is an example of this. A band that is clearly cemented within industrial metal, but adds melodic gothic metal, dubstep and EDM, making a somewhat cheesy futuristic experience, but it is actually quite catchy. Filip Lönnqvist is the brain behind it all and actually has his own mother providing the female vocals which bring in the gothic metal aspect.

Opening with "The Ascension", Rave The Reqviem is full-throttle genre-meshing but always carried by a thumping bass and distorted guitar. The song initiates with a robotic voice collaborated with a scream vocal, like a strange conversation. The clean vocals provided by Carola Lönnqvist bring a sense of theatricism to the production. "System Vs Solitaire" starts off sounding like something the EDM group Groove Coverage could have released. It is pretty tacky, but as soon as the guitars and drum & bass percussion is added, it actually works somehow.

Admittedly, I already start feeling that this will be deemed a guilty pleasure on my part. Lyrically, the references to mythology are plentiful, the obvious example being "Ikaros", but it is in songs like "The Svlphvry Void" where the lyrics raise an eyebrow: "My heart is bleeding like the slit of the Devil's whore" and "The death of hope is the birth of me, Alien phenomenon, Spat out from the cunt of the underworld, mental maelstrom" are just two examples of the somewhat strange lyrics found throughout this record. "Exhale" is one of the stronger tracks that kind of reminds me Rob Zombie gone modern. "Fvck The Vniverse" is one of the songs that I least like, apart from the clean vocals provided in the chorus.

In the long run, a lot of the songs are a little too similar to one another, creating that recognizable effect of not being able to distinguish them from another. This is however genre-meshing on its highest level, and I applaud artists who even dare to tread these dangerous territories. In the end, however, it all depends on taste, if you don't like EDM (which is Electronic Dance Music to all the novices) then this probably isn't your pot of soup, but give it a shot anyway. It is a decent album and I could probably party to this.

Download: Heroin(E), The Ascension, Ikaros
For The Fans Of: KoRn, Static X, Rob Zombie
Listen: facebook.com

Release date 11.04.2014
DWA

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