Valravn - The Awakening

Angry Metal Guy 60

People listen to music (and metal) for many different reasons. Some have found the particular sounds that unlock the code to the dopamine receptor in their noggins, and are content to stop there, getting the good feels, over and over, with tunes they know and trust. Others wear their receptors out, and constantly need new and exciting stimuli to get the same hit, eventually winding up in weird dissodeath land with Hollow and Dolphin. This different route to the same rush may explain the critic/consumer divide we sometimes see with art. Stuff that does exactly what is expected will satisfy those looking for the established rush, and disappoint those with more expansive tastes. This brings us to The Awakening, the sophomore album from Finnish band Valravn, following 2020’s under-the-radar, Prey. Despite claims from the band that this collection is an “acute balance of musical contrasts,” what it really is is meat-‘n’-taters black metal. Nothing wrong with that, of course. Meat-‘n’-taters is this reviewer’s jam, baby! (Along with mixing food metaphors) This collection will either satisfy or disappoint you depending on how attuned to classic black metal that pituitary gland in your brain is.

A “Valravn” is a supernatural being, often in the form of a knight or raven, that consumes the dead on the battlefield. The name is apt because the band’s sound is a cannibalization of many black metal bands that have come before. Specifically, the icy combination of melodicism and aggression pioneered by Dissection, Sacramentum and Darkthrone. This is no-frills stuff: 8 tracks over 44 minutes, with very little downtime or pointless interludes. There are some slower, doomy elements and some death-metal growls here and there, but the core of the music is rooted in the second wave. This is both a blessing and a curse, however.

The Awakening by Valravn

The good news about The Awakening is that it contains 8 songs of ok to very-good black metal, played by musicians who know their way around their instruments (the band had a reshuffle between albums, and many members are now playing different instruments than on the debut. That you wouldn’t know this without research is a testimony to the musicians’ versatility). The tracks themselves generally feature solid riffs, good ideas, and flow very nicely over the course of the album. If there are no huge stand-out moments (although the clattering chorus of “Këhan Murtama, and the lovely synths on “Charge of the Last Cavalry” make valiant attempts) there are also a few duds. The only time the songs fail to entertain is when they slow down. Without the second-wave goodness to power them, the music grinds to a treacle-like halt. This is most evident on the first half of “The Insolent,” and much of “A Symphony of Horror,” both of which get bogged down in a doom-like mire from which they struggle to recover. The good news is these parts are rare. They highlight, however, that Valravn’s strengths lie in black metal, not doom.

The other issue with The Awakening is a criticism leveled against countless similar albums: you’ve heard it before. And you’ve probably heard it better. There is no feature that distinguishes Valravn from loads of other rivals. The aggression, the melodicism… hell, even the themes of the album, have all been done. The line between comfy old shoe and worn-out flip-flops is a fine one, and depending on your black metal tolerance, Valravn may hew towards the latter too frequently.

Reviewing The Awakening is hard work. There is much to like here—the album artwork is neat, the riffs are jaunty, the melodicism is satisfying, the musicianship extremely solid—and I feel that if I didn’t listen to dozens of these types of albums every year, I would probably enjoy it even more. But I do listen to a lot of black metal, and the thing that struck me was that while I enjoyed the tracks, few moments stuck out because I’ve heard iterations of this sound so many times before. Depending on what you want from your metal, your mileage may vary, however. The Awakening is good, traditional black metal. But in 2023, releasing that dopamine surge from the hardened pituitaries of genre aficionados may require something more.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Primitive Reaction
Websites: primitivereaction.bandcamp.com/album/the-awakening | facebook.com/ValravnFin/
Releases Worldwide: September 8th, 2023

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