Band:	Raventale
Album:	After
Style:	Atmospheric black metal, Doom metal
Release date:	December 2010

01. Gone
02. After
03. Youth
04. Flames
05. The Northern Hemisphere [Carpathian Forest cover]

I'm sure the first thing that popped to your mind when seeing the teaser for this review, along with the golden butterfly album cover, was "black/doom!" I know it was the first thing that popped into my mind. Ok, maybe not.

In any case, Raventale is one of those 'one man band' black metal projects, headed up by Astaroth, who hails from Ukraine. After is his fourth album and features five tracks spanning 35 minute or so.

The music is basically slow tempo black metal that shows influences from both the Doom side of things as well as some other Ukrainian black metal band you might be familiar with... Dude? Droog? Drudkh, Where's My Car? You get the idea.

Continuing along, I've also seen the term "depressive" bandied about as a descriptor for their style of black metal. I found it anything but. It actually has a warm feel to it. The guitars are well executed with a warm tone that drives the songs along. Keyboards wash in on the periphery, helping songs glide along without drowning anything out. Drums go along drumming, and I believe I heard a bass at a couple points in the album.

Vocals are of the spat/rasped type, and well done, when used. The lyrical topics broached are eternity and decay, as well as the cyclical nature of life, which then draws the art in, you know, as a worm is a lowly worm (well caterpillar, whatever), then evolves into the beautiful butterfly... only to eventually die and become, well, wormfood. Or at least that's my simplistic translation.

All in all, it's not particularly trailblazing and original, it's basically Drudkh flavored black metal smothered in doom sauce, but it is certainly executed well. Raventale succeed in capturing a mood. Perhaps not the horribly bleak one some might expect from an album in which "doom" and "depressive" have been used as descriptors. No. It's a warm but melancholic feel. It's the album to a Sunday afternoon in the Spring. You feel swell, life is good, but at that same time you have that tugging, foreboding notion in the back of your mind... "tomorrow it's back to work/class/slaying dragons before the weekly staff meeting at MS Towers" ? and your enjoyment of the moment is diminished with the knowledge of the inevitable demise of your free time.

Or something.

In any case, it's an enjoyable album definitely worth checking out. Particularly for Drudkh fans who might be looking for new stuff similar to their older works.