Grand Ravishing Extravaganza
Out of print, reissued as part of the Cask Strength Black Metal box set. 3" CD-R released by the Death Aesthetic sublabel of Somnambulant Corpse. Harsh, noisy covers of traditional folk songs and prewar popular music in the vein of Sheath And Knife and one loud, noisy version of an acoustic dead raven song.

Sawney Bean
Kamień Na Kamieniu
Czarne Oczy
Maryna
Złociste Chryzantemy
Elijah ~ bellowed
Siadła Muszka

Reviews

Dead Angel
Author: RKF
January 2003
This is so insanely loud -- i mean really goddamn fucking loud, man -- that the average person won't be able to approach it without earplugs, but fortunately for you, my ears are toast already so i can suffer for you. (But first i'm turning my fucking stereo down, thank you.) Once the volume's down at something slightly less than the detonations at nuclear test sites, the music is revealed to be more of Smolken's demented take on folk music (that is, warbled with quasi-operatic blackmetal vox and bathed in titanic clouds of blinding white noise). On "Sawney Bean," the white noise sounds remarkably like a celestial choir of angels beaming in their moans from a distant (well, maybe not that distant) star as Smolken emotes heavily over doomlike piano. The noise motif continues throughout, sometimes (as on "Czarne Oczy") in extremely painful fashion. Stripped of all the noise and overblown sound, i suspect this mainly sounds like Smolken's more sedate folk-oriented outings; with the noise going, it's hard to tell exactly what he's doing back there (it sounds pretty forbidding, whatever the hell it is). This is what Merzbow and Masonna geeks should be fixating on -- why spend all that cash on imports when you can listen to noise even more interesting (or obnoxious, i guess, depending on your view) from over here, available at domestic prices? Two final notes: 1) "Siadla Muszka" is what Emperor would sound like if they weren't so infatuated with geek-like keyboards, and 2) the liner notes credits drums to "an anonymous source," but i can't for the life of me figure out where the hell they are in the first place. Now that's serious blackened noise, my friend. The whole deal comes on a wee three-inch cd-r in an elaborate full-color, hand-assembled package, too, if you're deeply moved by that sort of thing. It looks real pretty. Just make sure your stereo's turned down before you play it, okay?

Throwing Horns
Author: Colin Conway
January 2003
As the envelope was torn and I grabbed this CD out of the package, I found an aesthetically pleasing 3" mini-CD with twine elegantly tied around it which I thought was pretty crafty. I read the bio and saw Yo-Yo Ma mentioned with Black Metal and an upright bass. At this point, I was very eager to hear "Grand Ravishing Extravaganza", thinking that it would be something diverse and talented. In this case, they gave a build up that could not be delivered. This production will surely make Fenriz sit in his 4-track Necrohell Studio scratching his head pondering how to get a Darkthrone production this noisy. And that's exactly the problem, it's no different than being a tenant with an apartment next to railroad tracks. I can't even tell if there are drums on this - hell, I can't even hear notes being played within a haze of treble and screams, all at a very high mix that equals a din, unbearable release.

Maelstrom
Author: Roberto
October 2002
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.

Metal Archives
November 30, 2004
Author: droneriot
Rating: 100%
Note: This is an English translation of the review posted in Myrrthronth a year earlier. The original German review is included below.
To make this clear right away: This is not a Black Metal band in its original sense. Only on occasion - between a majority of "more civilized" releases - a bit of boredom seems to overcome mister Smolken and he fetches himself a guitar that has been distorted beyond any threshold, tears off his vocal chords and lets a wall of noise shatter in the background - if it may be organic, synthetic or even underworldly I do not dare to define. This is already interesting and unique considering that the song material which Dead Raven Choir perform in this manner is almost exclusively limited to traditionals and evergreens from all around the world, especially and most frequently from eastern European regions. This includes the use of any number of seemingly ancient instruments ("Harsh, noisy covers of traditional folk songs and prewar popular music"). One might perhaps think of Nokturnal Mortum, Lord Wind and friends at this point, but one couldn't be further from the truth, as this "Grand Ravishing Extravaganza" 3"EP does not present the usual genre-mishmash of the "not meat, not fish"-type, but quite the opposite - in an outmost perfection this material creates the impression of being homogenous and conclusive within itself. But that - by far - isn't all of it. Some of you might already have wondered about the title of this EP, which represent the manner of how Dead Raven Choir draw the "evilness" inherent to Black Metal not from spiked wristbands and corpsepaint but from a wonderful, omnipresent sarcasm, not only in the form of "unusual" Albumtitles - which get as bizarre as "Lesbian Corpse Wolves. Along with a beautiful, quite neatly made presentation, the aforementioned authenticity of the song material and the horrendously chaotic and intensive sound - that even makes Ildjarn or Ulver's "Nattens Madrigal" seem tame - the buyer of this release can expect an impression of the ingenious work of an extraordinary artist - that is, if his ears survive the first few listens. I have no idea for what reason I could possibly reduce the rating below 100%. The total playing time of little more than 19 minutes surely isn't world-shattering, but lets be realistic, since Gorgoroth at the very latest most of us know very well that you don't need a whole 70 minutes to present an outstanding release.
I think I don't need to go any further into the details of each individual one of the 7 songs since the characteristics described above pretty much apply on each one equally - with the exception of one accoustic interlude - even though each song creates its own and unique aura.
All in all, I can wholeheartedly count this little masterpiece among the less than few recent releases that successfully introduce innovations into the art of Black Metal without sounding like Peter Tägtgren and sell-out. Not to mention that this band represents a refreshing counterpart to the recent "Black Metallers go Pagan/Neofolk"-trend. Absolute recommendation!!

Myrrthronth
November 2003
Rating: 10/10
Um es gleich vorwegzunehmen: Dies ist keine Black Metal Band im ursprünglichen Sinne. Nur gelegentlich - zwischen einem überwiegenden Teil "gesitteterer" Veröffentlichungen - scheint den Herrn Smolken ein wenig die Langeweile zu überkommen und er schnappt sich eine bis zum Anschlag verzerrte Gitarre, reißt sich die Stimmbänder ab und lässt im Hintergrund eine Krachwand schüsseln, deren menschlichen, synthetischen oder gar unterweltlichen Charakter ich nicht zu definieren wage. Interessant und einzigartig ist dies schon dadurch, dass sich das dargebotene Liedgut von Dead Raven Choir fast ausschließlich auf Traditionals und Evergreens aller Herren Länder - hauptsächlich aus dem osteuropäischen Raum - beschränkt, einschließlich des Verwendens allerhand altertümlich anmutenden Instrumenten ("Harsh, noisy covers of traditional folk songs and prewar popular music"). Man mag da vielleicht an Nokturnal Mortum, Lord Wind und Konsorten denken, doch weiter könnte man nicht entfernt liegen, da es sich bei dieser mir vorliegenden Grand Ravishing Extravaganza 3" EP um keinen üblichen Genre-Mischmasch der Marke "nicht Fleisch, nicht Fisch" handelt, sondern in äußerster Perfektion in sich geschlossen wirkt.
Doch das ist bei weitem nicht alles. Manch einer wird sich schon über den Titel der EP gewundert haben, so zieht Dead Raven Choir seine für Black Metal obligatorische "Evilness" nicht etwa aus Nietenarmbändern und Kriegsbemalung, sondern durch einen herrlichen allgegenwärtigen Sarkasmus, nicht nur in Form "außergewöhnlicher" Albumtitel, wobei "Lesbian Corpse Wolves" wohl allem die Krone aufsetzt. Gepaart mit einer hervorragend liebevollen Aufmachung, die man einfach gesehen haben muss, mit der vorher angesprochenen Authenzität des Songmaterials und dem ungeheuer chaotisch-intensiven Sound, der selbst Ildjarn oder Ulvers "Nattens Madrigal" noch Konkurrenz zu machen weiß, erwartet einen beim Kauf dieser Veröffentlichung - im Falle dass die Ohren die ersten Hördurchläufe unbeschadet überstehen - ein Einblick in das geniale Schaffen eines außergewöhnlichen Künstlers.
Ich weiß hier beim besten Willen nicht, wofür ich auch nur ein kleines Pünktchen abziehen könnte. Die Spieldauer von gut 19 Minuten ist sicherlich nicht weltbewegend, aber machen wir uns doch nichts vor, spätestens seit Gorgoroth wissen doch die meisten, dass man keine 70 Minuten braucht, um eine herausragende Veröffentlichung präsentieren zu können. Zu den einzelnen der insgesamt 7 Lieder brauche ich mich meiner Ansicht nach nicht näher zu äußern, da die weiter oben beschriebenen Charakteristiken sicherlich auf alle Stücke gleichermaßen zutreffen - von einem kurzen akustischen Intermezzo abgesehen - wobei jedes seine eigene und einzigartige Aura entwickelt.
Fazit: Dieses kleine Meisterwerk zähle ich zu einer mehr als geringen Zahl aktueller Veröffentlichungen, die es schaffen, Innovationen in die Kunstform "Black Metal" einzubringen, ohne dabei nach Tägtgren und Ausverkauf zu klingen. Und dazu noch ein unverzichtbares Gegengewicht zur heutigen "Black Metallers go Pagan/Neofolk"-Schwemme. Absoluter Pflichtkauf!!