Review Summary: A promising debut from the British trio.
Before I listened to the debut full-length album from RavenEye, I happened to see the startup band twice. The first time was in 2015, when the three guys from the town of Milton Keynes opened for
Slash who came in support of his latest record
World on Fire. I got to be honest, despite my absolute lack of knowledge of the songs they performed, the power trio managed to make the most positive impression. The band demonstrated their imposing instrumental skills and riled up the audience with their sturdy hard rock infected with a touch of blues. It seemed to me personally that the guys even somewhat overshadowed the main star thanks to their energy and barely restrained hunger for attention, which stood out effectively against the worn-out professionalism of the veteran band.
The second time I saw RavenEye was in 2017, this time they opened for another veteran band, namely
KISS. Now the British rock trio made a different impression. On the one hand, they still played their bombastic and energetic hard rock, but on the other they no longer looked like boys yearning to get on a scene, they were a tight and road-travelled band of professional musicians. However, despite that reduced naiveté and primal fury they still could stand toe to toe with the classic rock dinosaurs. During the performance I noticed a longer setlist and, following a quick search in the World Wide Web, I found out the band recorded and released their first album in 2016 titled
Nova.
For the bands notable for their highly energetic performances, it can be rather difficult to catch and reflect that in the studio. Since it was precisely what impressed me the most about them, it was curious to see whether RavenEye managed to pull that off. And it can be stated in this regard they made an A effort. The music sounds loud and cracking but you can still hear the individual instruments, so praise should be given to the sound engineers. Given that this is a studio effort some restraint is felt, still the thunderous bass lines of Aaron Spiers, pounding drums of Gunnar Olsen (Adam Breeze joined the band after the album was recorded) and fuzzy guitar and crisp vocals of Oli Brown wrap the audience in a pulsating cocoon of pure and unadulterated hard rock full of necessary grooves. On a side point, it is better to experience the LP in headphones.
In other respects, excluding the overall energy flowing on the record, the RavenEye debut falls in the same category as other British and American bands who attempt to revive the 70s rock sound. The CD has a sufficient variety in tempo and mood, represented with faster and sharper cuts like
Come with Me and
Oh My Love, more aggressive and mid-tempo tracks like
Wanna Feel You and
Out of the Rain, and moodier songs like
Eternity. In terms of melody and catchiness, as well as overall quality, the material is every bit as good as that released by their fellows from
Royal Blood or like-minded contemporaries from
Wolfmother and
Crobot. And it is probably the only thing that can be described as a shortcoming of the effort from these surely talented British guys. Nevertheless, the album is of a rather high level, so let’s hope that
Nova is not going to be their only LP and there are many more to come.
