Review by Iron Mike
- Release date: 12/30/2023
- Mixed by Steve Henningsgard and Mastered by Adam Tucker at Signaturetone Recording
- Tags: blackened death metal, metal, raw black metal, avant-garde metal, black metal, death metal, Minnesota
Setup
Oddly enough, this started out with me preparing to review a different band. After listening to the other band’s tracks, my player started ripping through Victim off this one. It wasn’t long before I realized I’d stopped listening to the first band and was hooked on RAHVN.
Matt from VolsungaSaga turned me onto these guys a few months ago, but I hadn’t really done the deep dive on this EP – til now.
Their descriptor on Bandcamp: “blackened death from Minnesota, trying to find the purest connection to the metal gods” says it all.
Fresh Meat
Parasitic Aeons opens with furious speed-picking and trip-hammer double bass splattering black metal gore all over the place. Most metalheads will know in the first few bars that this band means business. The growling/screaming vocals are properly abrasive and sure to scare the neighbors. If they aren’t scared, you aren’t playing it loud enough. Crank it!
Next up is the aforementioned Victim, which is currently my favorite on the EP. But, it’s sort of like a parent trying to choose their favorite kid, as this whole thing rips! Anyway, the 2nd track continues where the opener left off, kicking the listener in the face with speed and aggression. Where Parasitic leaned more into the black metal inspirations RAHVN clearly displays early and often, Victim brings their love for death metal into the picture. More intricate riffage, changes and abrupt stop/starts keep this song tearing through the speakers from beginning to end.
Things “slow down” with the next one, Wasteful Existence, that has slight shades of early Pestilence in there. This is certainly a more dynamic track than the previous songs.
#4 is the title track, Devouring the Frail. It starts out big and full, then proceeds to grind the listener with one of the slower verses on the album. Definitely a good change-of-pace for the blurring riffs on the rest of the album.
Venomous hits next, falling into the same vein of songs as the first 2. Inhuman Progress brings an all too early end to this EP, with a killer mixture of the 2 subgenres showcased within.
The Kill
These dudes get after it! Period.
I think a lot of folks don’t realize just how many killer metal bands make up the local Twin Cities scene. Just take a look at our ever-growing BANDS page for a glimpse into what I mean. While there are an amazing number of great ones here, a handful rise above. RAHVN seems to be 1 of those bands, at least based on this lone EP.
For those who live for the negatives: this disc roars in at just 24 minutes. It was released over a year and a half ago and is pretty lonely in their all-too-small discography. When a band releases something this good, they need to follow it up quickly with another album, lest the audience get excited, and then forget about them. Hopefully RAHVN is about to drop another album – it would totally suck if they aren’t…
Final Thoughts
If you like death metal, black metal or any form of relentless, extreme metal, check this one out.