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recensione

Once again I find myself to review a band from the cold Rovaniemi, and the southernmost corner of the Artic circle. It’s from this small town, better known for things such as the nearby Santa village, assaulted by tourists all over the year, that Ravage Machinery comes from. This "The Dystopian Tide" EP is the follow-up of two previously recorded demos, which I didn’t have the pleasure to listen to, unfortunately. One thing that comes up immediately in my mind is the recent discussion I had with another artist from the same town, who was amazed by coming back there to see how well-equipped these young bands are nowadays, compared to 20 years ago. That must be true, since the production, even if not still the best ever, sounds nothing like an EP recorded in a small studio in northern Finland, if you just think about tons and tons of material that comes from your average Italian underground band, for instance. That tells a lot about how much more weight is given to music in this frostbitten country.
Musically-wise, the record appears to wink evidently to their Swedish neighbours in their influences. This Death metal with some thrash traits sounds heavy and aggressive from the start, and finds its best in my opinion in songs such as "Lethal Slavery" and "March Of The Consumed". The first being appreciated by the overwhelming and intrusive guitar riffing, accompained by a powerful avalanche at the drums where the vocals of Jukka Haarala seems to fit quite well, and the latter representing somehow a more melodic approach, even if the synthetic march-like intro downgrade it a bit I think, where the five-piece shows a more slowed-down, lilting sound, adding gravity to the atmosphere of the track.
There is however some room for improvement: the whole package gives the impression that the Lappish guys have tried to insert "too much" in little space, thus the variety of the 4 tracks becomes a bit of a double-edged weapon, in the sense that it results slightly heavier to the listener after a few times. Maybe a more straight-in-your-face sounding style could have made them stronger. Otherwise technically the band seems to have what it needs, they just have to put all the pieces of the puzzle in the right order.
Overall TDT, with its four songs, seems to give a good glimpse of what the band is capable of (the best being the more accelerated, aggressive bits of the album), and appears to be powerful enough for a live performance, although I believe the guys need to still polish their sound and maybe make their songs a bit lighter to obtain what it would be an otherwise kick-ass EP. The way seems about right, good luck to Ravage Machinery and let’s hope to hear a debut record sometime soon!

Recensione di Marco Manzi

tracklist

1. Thus I serve
2. Lethal Slavery
3. Collapse To Retaliate
4. March Of The Consumed