review by: Roberto Martinelli

Well, now, this is much different. On this mini album, Dead Raven Choir explores some sort of black noise that toes the line between black metal and experimental. The sound is totally fucked and fuzzed out. I'm a big fan of fuzzy, so this is a big plus in my book. The music is primarily guitar fuzz and scathing vocals that are both LOUD.

Although there are sometimes some simple melodic elements that make their way into the seven tracks on this album, Grand Ravishing Extravaganza is more about the sound than the compositions. Ironically, the track that has the most distinction on the album, one that has folky guitar like on the acoustic Dead Raven Choir albums, is the least enjoyable. There are apparently some drums on this album (which were "donated by an anonymous source"), but I didn't hear any. This is how perverted the sound is.

This MCD may not be ravishing or extravagant, but it's an intense listening experience. For people like me, this kind of fucked up beyond all recognition production and caustic vocals provide for some kind of blissful experience. To make things cooler, the album comes in a package that you can't help but love: a little CD with a sunflower (?) printed on it that comes in a plastic slip case wrapped by a simple piece of high-quality paper featuring a wrap around picture of a mountain at dusk. The whole thing is hand tied by a piece of rope to hold it together. In my book that's pretty cool. Check it out.