COUNT RAVEN — Mammons War (review)

COUNT RAVEN — Mammons War album cover Album · 2009 · Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Time Signature
A lifetime...

Genre: doom metal

This is good old fashioned doom metal, harkening back to the pre-death doom days. "Mammons War" is the first Count Raven album since 1996, and it is certainly an effort they can be proud of. We are dealing with a solid and stylistically album here which, although it has not made the same impression on me as "Storm Warning" did, I enjoy listening to.

"Mammons War" was, on more than one occasion, reminds me a lot of Black Sabbath. One reason is, of course, that Dan Fondelius sounds a lot (too much, I think) like Ozzy Osbourse, and a lot of the riffage is also reminiscent of Tony Iommi's style. I wouldn't write this album off as a clone of early Sabbath though. Firstly, it has a very modern sound - compared to Sabbath; compared to present-day doom metal, it has a very retro sound - which is one of the things I really like about it. That being said, the bass sound (check out "Seven Days" for instance) is pretty much copied from Geezer Butler... but let us consider it a tribute rather than a rip-off, shall we? Secondly, "Mammons War" is nowhere as blues- and jazz-derived as Sabbath's early stuff was, and is more straightforward with less stylistic interplay.

While I like this album for what it is - good old fashioned retro sounding doom metal - I am afraid that some younger fans might find it boring and monotonous, especially long tracks like "The Entity", "A Lifetime", and "Seven Days". The thing is that Count Raven's approach is more minimalistic than the more epic sounding Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus, and thus, I can imagin that some might find a really long track which onle makes use of a handful of different riffs a bit hard to listen to. That being said, the long tracks are my favorite tracks of the album, because of the sheer heaviness (especially, "Seven Days" is a wonderfully mesmerizingly minimalistic heavy track); and being brought into an almost trance-like state is, I would argue, one of the most cherished doom metal experiences one can have (the other one is being brought to tears through the melancholy created musically; "Mammons War" is not likely to do that to me).

I would recommend this album to fans of old school pre-doom/death doom metal and also to the younger fans who are interested in old school doom metal. I think that fans of My Dying Bride and early Cathedral will appreciate some of the tracks on this album, such as "Seven days" and "A Lifetime". Although this is not a sludgy album, I think that some fans of sludge metal might like it too.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Le bannissement Atmospheric Black Metal
CANTIQUE LÉPREUX
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tarantula Heart Sludge Metal
MELVINS
Buy this album from MMA partners
God Damned You To Hell Traditional Doom Metal
FRIENDS OF HELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Absence Melodic Death Metal
THE ABSENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Unextinct Technical Death Metal
HIDEOUS DIVINITY
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Fallen Ashes - Wage War (Official Lyric Video)
FALLEN ASHES
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Unreality (Single) 2024
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Cold Hands
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 8 days ago
IRON MONKEY - Misanthropizer (Official Music Video)
IRON MONKEY
Bosh66· 10 days ago
??? (Losing ART) - "????" (Official Music Video) [HD]
漂浮者樂團
Bosh66· 11 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed