Rave The Reqviem - Rave The Reqviem

To start off a forthcoming coincidental onslaught of reviews & interviews for artists whose names start with 'R,' I present you with my newest review. Early in 2013 debuted a band whose demos sounded perfect. A four (4) track demo, followed months later by a two (2) track demo from a Swedish composer whose lyrical themes tied around Greek Mythology, and then presented it with an industrial-metal-dubstep infused wall of sound to deliver his message- each brick layered with such precise production, it's no wonder that one of the most prestigious record labels picked them up and took them under their wing. In December 2013 Rave the Reqviem (from here on out referred to as RTR) announced that they had signed a deal with Digital World Audio (from here on out referred to as DWA) to take over the world.

Having heard 6 out of 13 of the tracks on the album last year - Ikaros, Fvck the Vniverse, Heroin(e), & Sloth Whore -- then Is Apollo Still Alive? & Aeon - I had a pretty good idea of what was in store. A mind blowing and innovative album. A 9 out of 10. Rave the Reqviem's self-titled debut is surely epic. From the opening industrial-metal anthem of "the Ascension," to the album's closing and-only instrumental track, "God Came Throvgh a Serpent's Movth," the precision & execution throughout is so mind blowing and so mesmerizing that you can't help but listen to the album again and again- while under the influence of RTR you find yourself in a trance state drifting off into the world that Filip Lönnqvist created. Adding further to the dynamics already set forth, four remixes were commissioned by the likes of Combichrist, the album engineer's gemini-project Noisuf-X, Alien Vampires, and by the request of Filip himself, Seraphim System - all delivering different club mixes that I will rip apart later.

Album starter, "the Ascension," comes as a perfect introduction to RTR - as RTR incorporates elements from numerous --and polar opposite-- genres throughout the album, but this song in particular pretty much covers it all. The precision & execution on production, the way the song kicks off in a mostly metal delivery, blendeding industrial, ebm, dubstep, with distorted & clean male vocals contrasted against very unique and beautiful, angelic soprano female vocals, and operatic chants - all of that is measured in good, healthy portions that are easy to digest and never really becomes overwhelming despite the onslaught of freshly blended sounds that were created.

The second track start off kind of trance-y and then suddenly turns into an all out industrial metal assault. A particularly catchy track - while none of the lyrics are really catchy at first listen, the song's melody and structure is and if given another listen it will most likely grow on you if you were kind of iffy after first listen. The lyrics really grow on you with Carola's ethereal soprano vocals. Despite the great melody and a structure executed with such precision, it is one of the less memorable songs on the album. I like to listen to albums from start to finish, especially after it's initial release - but I can tell years down the road, this will probably be one of the tracks I end up skipping.

Surely a prime choice for a single, "Ikaros," soars across the album with such prestige. It really is a stand out track - being the most melodic vocal wise from Filip. The chorus is really catchy and just epic, "Fly! Ikaros, Fly! Shape Your wings, Into a fist, In the face of the Sky! Fly! Ikaros, Fly! There is no turning back, you live or you die." It's no wonder an artist of Combichrist's caliber was commissioned for a remix of the track.

I think my third favorite track has to be, "Is Apollo Still Alive?" Probably one of the most simplistic tracks with not that very many lyrics [only 101 words, including consonants] and the track itself is actually pretty short too - but then again, RTR isn't exactly the kind of band to write lengthy five plus minute tracks, they tend to keep their craft at the radio friendly length of 3:00 - 4:30.

Aeon is another hard hitting track with a loving intro sample consisting of, "RTR, fuck me hard," and then quickly transitions into a pummeling, attack from the guitars - quite the headbanger. I found the lyrics to be rather interesting and they're pretty easy to relate to. The words used in the chorus to describe the feelings of betrayal, and self doubt spoken through a depressed state of mind just echo from the past. I love how during the chorus, Carola sings it and then at the end Filip says "I'll die with this pain, bitch," and then it goes right back to that pummeling guitar attack.

The darkest and hardest sounding song from the record would have to be "the Svlphery Void." It would probably warrant the album a parental advisory sticker to some stuck-up-conservative-yoohoo for the use of the cunt word. But, in DWA fashion - Fuck Censorsh!t - and there is no parental advisory. Some of the similes used are also pretty explicit, "My heart is bleeding like the slit of the Devil's whore," with another equally explicit metaphor used towards the end of the song, "Spat out from the cunt of the underworld." The metaphorical chorus sung by Carola is so deep and gives you such visuals, you really become more enveloped into the song upon listening.

My favorite track, hands-down is "Exhale." While there's a good bunch of really catchy, really well written tracks, this one is just executed so perfectly I would be really surprised if there wasn't a single for it, like a v-i-n-y-l (hint, hint). All the lyrics to this song are fucking awesome. I want to include and excerpt from the first lyrics, and then I find myself wanting to include lyrics to the chorus as well, and then the verses are filled with more amazing lyrics - I would end up just writing the whole damn song - I just suggest reading them, Filip posted them on lyrics.com since there was no booklet with the digipak. After the chorus, they even use a signature song writing structure often used in the punk & metal scenes i.e. a chant of minimal words during a song: "HEY! HEY! HAIL! HEY! HEY! HAIL! EXHALE!" Another favorite part is when they use the Greek chanting after the second to last "HAIL!" chant - It would've been rather cool if Filip provided those lyrics as well, even if they are in Greek. Some non-Greek Native like myself would definitely go look up what they mean through something like google translator. It just adds that culture, that uniqueness and brings it to the foreground in popular electronic music, making it shine beautifully.

Another banging track, probably my second favorite, is "Fvck the Vniverse." From what I can decipher, it's a brutal tale about raping angels and decimating the earth in a fiery rage. "I wanna take you down I wanna slit your throat Fuck you And raise hell to burn what's left behind I wanna cut your veins open wide I wanna plant eggs of parasites And let them eat you from inside." I don't know why, but my favorite part of the song is the lyric, "Set me on fire like the sun." This is also the track Filip had his friend John from Seraphim System remix - a killer remix I'll talk about a little later.

I have no clue what "Thistleblower" means, I tried looking it up but can't come up with a good definition by putting the two words together - urban dictionary said it was a wine bar with a bed innit - so I suppose BR will have to get an interview with Sir Filip in the not too distant future. Like System vs. Solitaire, I feel like this was one of the other weaker songs on the album. The lyrics and composition is good, just nothing really too captivating or catchy to really make the song stand out.

The 10th track on this album I found to be really appealing. You know how singers will purposefully mispronounce words for the sake of singing? Well, I'm not sure if it's an accent thing or if it's actually on purpose like I feel it is - you never know until the interview - but, I love how Carola mispronounces schizophrenia when singing the song's title "Schizophrenia in Reverse" during her melodic, contrasting choruses. Schizophrenia ends up being the longest original song on the album, 4:56.

"Sloth Whore" is an interesting song because it pulls in from so many different genres. Filip's vocal delivery during the vast majority of the song is harsh and dark sounding - could easily be remixed by any talented harsh ebm band and it would fit extremely well. You must listen to the lyrics in the chorus sung by Carola to actually get the song.

The second to last track "Heroin(E)" is my least favorite song on the album. The lyrics ward me away from the song. The part in the chorus where Carola's voice is auto-tuned saying "Yeah, Yeah" just bugs the shit out of me. I will say that I did really enjoy how the vocals were presented during the verse before the chorus. Overall, this song will probably only be played in the car when I'm listening to the CD, but even then I might skip to the next song or the Combichrist remix.

The closing intrumental track, "God Came Throvgh a Serpent's Movth," is quite beautiful. At times it feels steampunk-y, rivaling the Synthetic Dream Foundation, yet it has that RTR production sound. This track almost sounds like it would be used as the background music for a scene depicting someone transcending into the afterlife.

As a whole album, it's amazing. It's fresh, innovative, and powerful. You could easily see this band slaying crowds with Combichrist and would probably appease to a number of Rammstein fans. Interestingly enough, the first website this album popped up on as an illegal download was a metal website - which I think is a great thing for the band, exposure wise. Any time you pin yourself down to just 'industrial' you've really limited your reach and the probability of anyone outside the dark electronic world taking you seriously.

The album has amazing production, the attention to detail, just the way it was executed is outstanding. The contrast between clean & harsh male vocals with beautiful soprano female vocals is quite appealing, possibly one of my favorite parts. I would surely say this is another artist in the dark electronic world that incorporates dubstep proper - I would add them to the swaggrotech bubble with Ruinizer, Die Sektor, Cease2Xist, Cryogenic Echelon, The .invalid, Sirus and Defeat. My only qualms were, after listening to the record over 20 times I found the material to not vary very much from itself. There's almost the same or similar kind of structures or the same approach to songs in every song- minus the instrumental track obviously. I highly suggest for Filip to sing-sing, that could bring in a whole plethora of different ways to approach writing the structure for a song.

Remixes? Sure, there's four of them. The Combichrist remix of, "Ikaros," was surprisingly good, a lot of their remixes lately have been hit or miss for me, they sound pretty half-assed a lot lately. (But not their remix for Surgyn!) Although I love Carola's vocals and the contrast it brings to RTR, I do like the way the some of her vocals were removed from the mix to provide a more clubby version of the song with some signature CC beats. This remix sounds exactly how you'd want some remixes to sound like, as if Filip wrote the lyrics and sang vocals to a song with Combichrist writing the music. It blends perfectly well, I hope to see RTR opening for CC someday.

Upon first listen, I did not really enjoy the Noisuf-X remix of my favorite song, "Exhale." The structure and delivery was completely changed, and was completely offsetting. After many more listens I actually found myself enjoying it a little more. It's a different remix, but I'm not too sure if I would actually play it in a DJ set, I would probably just go with the original. I'm not so keen on the lead arp that sounds heavily filtered and is used during the verses - actually, it really gets on my nerves at times. Same with the lead that preludes and is used in the chorus, it has this Mortal Kombat sounding tone to it that just drives me nuts.

Alien Vampires turned the banger, "Aeon" into a crazy motherfucker! It starts off with porno-flick sounding guitar lick and then eventually builds into a trancey ass-shaker that AV is known for. I'm not sure which remix is better, this one or the CC one, but I would probably go with AP's because porno-flick guitar lick! Well, not only that, but I really love the beat and vibe of this remix.

Seraphim System's aggro-dub-step remix of, "Fvck the Vniverse," is loud and noisey. SS is really good at tearing a band's song apart and churning out a banging remix. I like how during some parts it was purposely designed to sound like the CD is skipping, so when an RTR fan pops in the CD and listens to it for the first time - they might just check their CD player to see if the track is skipping. May 18 2014