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CRAVEN IDOL
Towards Eschaton

Dark Descent (2013)
Rating: 7/10

From the opening gothic strains of ‘To Summon Mayrion’ we know we’re in for a mysterious journey with Craven Idol, a London-based blackened thrash act fronted by Immolator Of Sadistik Wrath, who is responsible for those fearsome rasps and nihilistic, grating guitars alongside the aptly named Scourger.

It’s great to hear a British act covering a genre of metal that seems, at the moment anyway, to be dominated by Swedish and Finnish bands. Thankfully, unlike a lot of British metal acts of the mid to late 80s, the production here is reasonably crisp and the instruments can be distinguished from one another instead of that usual muddying that UK acts have been let down by over the years.

Fans of the likes of Aura Noir will no doubt find this full-length debut a frothing beast of a record that revels in its anti-Christianity amidst a blitz of abrasive percussion and searing hate.

Although a number of the songs are delivered with pace, the band effortlessly mix tempo to produce a number of standout tracks, such as ‘Sworn Upon The Styx’ which features some toxic drums from J.C. Volgard and those rather familiar harsh, wintry guitars which are razor sharp in their execution.

There is certainly an old school feel about the record, echoing bands such as Blasphemy to some extent, but throughout the message is always a scathing one as the caustic combo churn out a number of racy numbers, the fastest and most hateful of these being ‘Golgotha Wounds’ with its frantic drums and Suspiral’s devilish bass.

‘Craven Atonement’ is equally maniacal and played at 100mph featuring some wailing solos and hyper drums. However, too much of this spite isn’t always a good thing because this means that on Towards Eschaton Craven Idol comes across as a rather non-descript band at times. For example, ‘Codex Of Seven Dooms’ begins with simmering promise but once again resorts to those ultra-fast dynamics, although hope is restored when the band unexpectedly slow the pace with a dark chugging riff, but sadly it fails to last.

‘Aura Of Undeath’ follows suit, building with a classic metal guitar sound but once again it is all too eager to froth with hateful intent, adopting a punky edge, before we’re treated to the catchy ‘Left To Die’ which is classic 80s black thrash at its heart. Finally, album closer ‘Orgies’ ups the pace again, but remains a more memorable number to end this eight-track outing.

There’s no doubting that Craven Idol are a force of evil to be reckoned with, and at times they find some great, oily melody within the haste, and alongside those vicious vocal sneers it all bodes reasonably well for apocalyptic album number two.

Neil Arnold

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