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RAVAGE
Spider On The World

Thrash With Power (2024)
Rating: 8/10

With their first full-length studio album of new material since 2009’s The End Of Tomorrow, traditional Boston, Massachusetts-based metalheads Ravage return with a fine slab of melodic metal in the form of Spider On The World. Taking their name from original vocalist Alec “Al Ravage” Firicano, the band also features another original member in guitarist Eli Firicano (brother of Alec). The rest of the current line-up consists of guitarist Nick Izzo, bassist Tommy Grimaldi and drummer Toni Belchior.

Look beyond the garish cover design and you’ll be rewarded with a strong album that ripples with an Iron Maiden-esque trajectory while also drifting towards a New Wave Of British Heavy Metal vibe alongside lighter shades of classic 80s US power metal. Alec Firicano has a commanding yet versatile voice that shifts between venomous seething and potent clear commands.

There is a fluidity through this album as the combo embarks with catchy opener ‘Manmade Ice Age’ which begins like classic Judas Priest accompanied by two epic wails from Alec Firicano before the machine gun riffs take hold. All the songs here boast a bombastic nature and remain tight and precise. ‘The Call To Order’ begins like Grave Digger with its tweaked melody and stony percussion, but there is space for slower, suspenseful numbers too such as the darkly melodramatic ‘Without A Trace’.

Spider On The World is such a wholesome album that oozes a metal purity with its infectious and instant grooves, nowhere more apparent than on ‘Corruption Of Blood’ with an extra sneering vocal performance. Elsewhere, there is the steady cool gallop of ‘From The Mouth Of Pain’, the Maiden-esque ‘Sign Of The Spider’, and the equally epic ‘Face Of Infamy’. You’ll also find occasional speed metal flecks just to add further steel to this already robust construction.

Ravage are more than just a solid and reliable heavy metal band because, as this album shows, there is a real quality to the songs. My only concerns here are that the band may slip under the radar of many, but Spider On The World is once again proof that Ravage is a force to be reckoned with.

Neil Arnold

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