Reviews: SAT052
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Ragnell are a young Mexican collective with one single official recording on their name: Black Requiem, released via one of the strongest Russian labels, Satanath Records. Black Requiem clocks less than half an hour, and it was recorded by the trio Eduardo (b, v), Carlo (d) and Mauricio (g, v) in early 2013.
What this EP brings is an energetic, melodic and obscure form of Black / Death Metal. First of all it’s the sound that strikes me. Though it is not that decent or clean, it isn’t messy either. On the contrary, the anti-pulpy massiveness of the production empowers the final aural result. I also like the great song writing and ditto performance. It’s filled with variation in structure and speed, including straight-forward rhythmic outburst, melodious integrity (what’s in a word…) and timeless compositions, balancing in between traditional essence and timeless ear play.
The band tries to get away from the standard, and they succeed to do so. Throughout their creations, Ragnell try to invent self-created pieces whatsoever, however without trying to be progressive, experimental or über-modern. It’s just that they are willing to, and capable at adding some highly interesting and distinctive excerpt, like at the end of Soaked In The Blood Of Blasphemy.
If this is some omen to an upcoming full length, then I want to be under the spell of Ragnell! Interesting piece of aural evilness!
86/100
Ragnell are a band from Mexico that has been featured before in this zine and plays a mixture of black n death metal and this is a review of their 2013 ep "Black Requiem" which was released by Satanath Records.
Clean playing starts off the ep and after a few seconds the music goes into a very fast and raw black metal direction that also utilizes a great amount of blast beats while the growling vocals bring in death metal elements while the riffing also brings in morbid sounding melodies at times and the first track is very long and epic in length.
Throughout the recording there is a great mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts and black metal screams can also be heard in certain sections of the recording and the songs mix the rawness of black metal with the brutality of death metal and all of the musical instruments have a very powerful sound to them and there is also a brief use of spoken word parts on one of the tracks.
Ragnell plays a musical style on this recording that mixes the heaviest styles of black and death metal to create a very heavy sounding recording, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover anti religion, evil and violence themes.
In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from Ragnell and if you are a fan of black and death metal, you should check out this ep. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Soaked In the Blood Of Blasphemy" and "Holy Center Of Worship "To Burn".
http://occultblackmetalzine.blogspot.com.by/2015/12/ragnellblack-requiemsatanath.html
"Consumed By The Eternal Darkness” is the debut album of this Mexican Death / Black trio RAGNELL. The band already released the EP ”Black Requiem" in 2013 on the Russian label Sathanath Records. This album is a first acquintance and even though it clocks only two minutes over the EP, it’s labelled as a full-length. That aside, the music is more relevant and could be described as a mix of BELPHEGOR, DARK FUNERAL and ABOMINATOR. Each track, as the comparison would suggest, is full of blasting rhythms and midtempo sections and slow but intense double bass breakdowns. In these parts, some THE CHASM crawls in. The band plays as tight as KRISIUN did on their older records and it’s done with full force and anger. Especially the drums show and play a key role. The riffs are not bad but nothing really special either. They are pretty typical for this kind of style and represent the Black Metal side of RAGNELL. The vocals shift between high screams and low growls and are ocassionally taken over by some spoken parts. Interesting addition. If you’re sick and tired of the progressive evolutions in Black Metal these days and worship the brutal approach that flourished some ten years ago, this one should fulfill your needs. So check yourself on www.facebook.com/ragnellbanda, http://ragnell.bandcamp.com, www.satanath.com
http://www.voicesfromthedarkside.de/Albums-EPs-Demos/R/RAGNELL--10393.html