01	Son Of The Earth						15:04
	02	Terminus Est						10:12
	03	Sojourn						02:48
	04	Mystagogue						14:09
	05	Dead Man Walking						02:05

CORVUS CORAX


The Atavistic Triad
(Dark Symphonies)
2000

Shame on me! - I don't know what is Corvus. Shame on me twice!! - I don't have a clue what is Corax... Ok, but I understand difference between good music and shit, and I gladly tell you some of my feelings about this CD. Well, before-listening expectations: there are only 5 tracks but what are they long! Only one thing is over 3 minutes and the others have 11 - 15 minutes length. Would they be boring? Let's see... Sudden, the euphony of numerous instruments make me fall into the abyss of euphoria. Sometimes tough and sometimes accousticaly soft guitars, the same diversity of voices with a constant presence of keyboards make this music attractive for all sympho-black-doom metal lovers and for many others. I can't definitely say about strong sides of the album and that is a really bad thing, the only bad thing, should we add. The stuff is rather original but not original enough to awake furious and agressive madness lighted by the crescent in a long winter night. Nevertheless I believe that you've got a piece of maniacal love for The Atavistic Triad.

Rating: 7/10

--- Ariman, Metal Music Magazine
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Corvus Corax - The Atavistic Triad (8/10) - USA - 2000
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Dark Symphonies
Playing time: 44:27
Band-Homepage: unknown

Tracklist:
Son Of The Earth
Terminus Est:
Sojourn
Mystagogue
(Untitled)
No, this is not the new album of the German Medieval-band, but an American trio, which is labelled as "Pagan Symphonic Black Metal" by their label.
What catches your eye at the very beginning is the fact that five tracks cover more than 44 minutes, with two instrumentals not even reaching the three-minute-mark. So one thing should be clear from the start: no frosty Black Metal from the Nihilist Front of Scandinavia.

And as you could almost imagine, CORVUS CORAX place strong emphasis on variability, you can find any facet you could imagine within the Black Metal-genre, from aggressive and fast with croaky vocals to very calm and atmospheric passages with clean voice. Within this they manage to elude pure speed-frenzy or senseless connection of sound-fragments.

To give you any tips to check them out is virtually impossible, or do you think that you can really get the point of songs between 11 and 15 minutes with a short listen? Go figure. Even though they do not use really original influences, they still manage to create a sound that you haven't heard from 1594 other bands already.

For this and the competent execution of their complex, but never complicated songs they deserve more than just appreciation.

c 2000-2003 The Metal Observer. All rights reserved. Disclaimer





The Atavistic Triad
by jsin vs. jeighsohn

At long last, I was finally delivered music that had found its way to FuBARM's PO Box! Now, I admit that I was the worst possible choice to review these records, but I complained so much about being poor that I was the obvious choice for freebies. Corvus Corvax is just one of three albums sent to FuBARM by Dark Symphonies Records.

First off, the art on the CD is cool. It's like a backwards process symbol, but made of ravens. I figured that even if I hated this CD, I'd keep it around for decoration. Secondly, the enclosed press kit nearly made me laugh. "Behold the Pagan War Machine!" it clamours, before going on to describe the band in a fairy tale manner. It was silly and instantly made me expect for the worst, most contrived crap I've heard in years. Fortunately, inserting the disc and pressing play destroyed my first impressions.

I am not really a fan of black metal, so I don't know too much about the genre, but Corvus Corax is some good stuff. The opening track begins with the eerie call of a raven. Sure, it's about as original as Debbie Gibson, but it is still cool. Soon, a very lo-fi drum sound comes in and builds up into something akin to the dungeon music of The Legend of Zelda. Synth sounds abound and all that symphonic mumbo-jumbo spilling from the speakers, I began to have second thoughts. Then they started rocking and the rest of the disc became a good time.

Corvus Corax manages to create a subtle groove during the blast parts and I actually like the vocals. There isn't any soprano screaming or any really grumbly cookie monster stuff; what there is sort of resembles industrial vocals at times (a definite comparison to Krystoff of Bile) and more melodic death growls at other times. Musically, I don't know how original these guys are, but they sound good. They make appropriate use of acoustic instruments and have arranged the songs well, breaking up the blast parts with the usual keyboards and atmospheres. "Sojourn" is basically an instrumental piece that appears to make use of an upright bass (based on the attack of the sound signal). If so, that is pretty cool, and I give them credit for doing so.
-Jsin

i'm as dumbfounded as my counterpart. i actually like this record.
-jeighsohn

While we don't know how often we could listen to this, we really liked it when we listened to it. Therefore, Corvus Corax's 'The Atavistic Triad' gets a Hail the Mighty Goat from us, but we don't know we're talking about. hiss.

Overall Score: Hail The Mighty Goat (*****)