RAVAGE MACHINERY
The Dystopian Tide
(self-financed)
22:07min

Right up from the very north of Finland, Rovaniemi, comes RAVAGE MACHINERY; this melodic and heavy sounding Death Metal band that has been active since 2004 – and released 3 demos thus far. The band’s latest 4-track demo, "The Dystopian Tide", shows a clear improvement from the band members as songwriters. RAVAGE MACHINERY’s previous, 3-track 2009 demo, did not impress me too much for sounding kind of dull and uninspired, but it looks like time has done something good to this – probably the most northernmost existing Metal band as far as the band’s songwriting skills are concerned. The guys have taken their time this time by rehearsing the songs for a tight shape that sort of guarantee a listener may return back to this demo, just for getting their Metal kicks out of it – and obviously admitting these Finns have something very appealing yet attractive in their basically utterly heavy Death Metal sound that makes it possible for them to broaden their territory even further, than just staying some sort of local Metal heroes for the rest of their life. On the band’s earlier demo, "Reigning Disease", they still used some clean vocal parts in between the songs, which in my opinion was a failed attempt from them to kiss more people’s asses as the clean vocals simply didn’t fit into the band’s otherwise heavier-than-your-wet-trousers approach at all. I am glad they have abandoned the idea for including any clean vocal parts into this release because they sound much better without them. Because of that, RAVAGE MACHINERY sounds way heavier and more crushing, which is something Death Metal should do in the first place. At best RAVAGE MACHINERY are undoubtedly when they are entangled themselves with heavier musical compositions, like in the tracks like ‘Lethal Slavery’ – and especially in ‘March Of The Consumed’, which has similar type of  strange, sinister catchiness in it as Mr. Tägtren’s HYPOCRISY has in ‘Roswell 47’ off  the band’s 1996 album, named "Abducted". ‘March Of The Consumed’ reeks of the 1st class Death Metal song; it’s murky – and it’s heavy, full of eerie and ill-omened atmosphere that descends over its listener, surrounding and suffocating people by its all-piercing evilness that it contains in itself. Let’s hope they are able to come up with more similar sounding material in the future, obviously proving them calmer seas to sail through to the next harbor, which even could be a record contact well earned. Great work, guys. www.ravagemachinery.com

Luxi Lahtinen

Luxi Lahtinen

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