COUNT RAVEN — Storm Warning (review)

COUNT RAVEN — Storm Warning album cover Album · 1990 · Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Time Signature
In the name of rock 'n' roll...

Genre: traditional doom metal

It's heavy. It's dense. It's repetitive. It's old-fashioned. It's Swedish. It's Count Raven. It's f*cking great.

When I was in the underground thrash metal band, Erector, I listened quite extensively to "Storm Warning", and the other guys in the band used to laugh at it because it was slow, the riffage often simple and the singer had a strange nasal voice. I didn't care, because those were exactly things that I loved about this album. I still love them.

I love this old traditional style of doom metal, and "Storm Warning" is one of my all time favorites. Most of the riffage is simple, perhaps, but very captivating and melancholic. Compared to newer doom metal, the music on this album may not seem slow and heavy, but it is still heavy and doom-ladden. Tracks like "True Revelation", "In the Name of Rock 'n' Roll", and "Within the Garden of Mirrors" are just captivating and soul-torturing, and I love how their main riffs are just constantly repeated.

One of the things that my band mates at the time laughed the most at was Christian Lindersson's strange nasal voice and vocal lines. As it happens, I really love Lindersson's work on this album. His voice may be strange, but it's so very expressive. It has been described as being Ozzy-like, but, to my ears it isn't - Fondelius, who would take over as vocalist after Lindersson joined St. Vitus, sounds much more like Ozzy; needless to say, I like Lindersson better, because he sounds original.

Count Raven have received credit for writing socially conscious texts, which was unusual in most doom metal at the time, which dealt more with either psychological topics like depression and sorrow or horror/fantasy related topics. I do like the lyrical themes of "Storm Warning" although it's weird to hear anti-glam metal lyrics to such a melancholic riff as the main riff of "In the name of Rock 'n' Roll" - on the other hand, anti-glam was extremely metal at the time, and I really like the imagery of the lyrics, and how Lindersson ends up blaming the messed u state-of-affairs in the world on glam metal posers.

This is a doom metal classic. Buy it!
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

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

OPETH`S Epic Headline Show at Bloodstock 2024 | YouTube Premiere | Full Set | August 9th, 2024
OPETH
666sharon666· 75 minutes ago
Opeth '§4' Visualizer/Lyrics Video
OPETH
666sharon666· 75 minutes ago
Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 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