### Rev 16:8: Grand tidal rave

#### 11/02/13 || BamaHammer

“And the fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given to it to burn men with fire.” -Revelation 16:8

Fucken A. I’m in. Fire! YYYYYYES! I shall channel my inner Beavis.

Rev 16:8 is a now defunct (awww…) black metal band from Stockholm who released a couple of full-lengths before calling it a day in February 2012. I have no idea why they decided to call it quits, nor do I care, for these fuckos gave us a pretty good album here in their debut, “Grand tidal rave”, back in 2009.

So what does Rev 16:8 do that makes them different from the endless trail of black metal band cadavers out there? Well, honestly, not too much. They sound like a Swedish black metal band for the most part. Shocking, I know. However, I do dig a lot of what they do/did because of the way they mix melodic moments with movements of relentless, balls-out fury. At times, they’re reminiscent of Marduk in their assault of high-speed hate, but just when you think you’ve got them figured out, they’ll toss in a neat little riff or movement that reminds me of Naglfar or German melo-black metallers, Dark Fortress.

From a production standpoint, GTR is very tidy and very crisp. This may be a kvlt, disbanded Swedish black metal band, but they definitely sound like a high-class melodic metal band who can afford a fancy production. The levels are very smooth and the music is nice and thick. There really isn’t a lot to complain about in terms of the way this band sounds. It’s just a shame they didn’t give us more material.

When Rev 16:8 want to create something catchy and groovy as fvck, they can do it. Just listen to the riffing from “Red Serpent Coil” for a prime example of how fucken groovy they could be. When they weren’t focused on trying to blow everyone away with sheer speed and slowed down to a moderate pulse, they actually produced some mighty fine mid-paced black metal that even the most trvest fucker out there can enjoy. Those moments are the ones you’ll remember and want to hear again and again on here. However, there just isn’t quite enough of those type of moments.

The bottom line is that when Rev 16:8 try and speed things up just for the sake of it, they sound like any other Swedish black metal band out there. Yes, they sound fantastic and very good and talented, but they also sound ultimately anonymous. The high-speed blasting and tremolo-picked riffing all sort of blurs together after a while, but when Rev 16:8 is on, they’re pretty fucken good.

If bands like Naglfar or Dark Fortress or even Legion-era Marduk please your scaly demonic phallus, then by all means, check out Rev 16:8. There will probably be at the very least a handful of moments you’ll be glad you heard. You may not remember them tomorrow, but they’ll be cool for a little while.

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Temple of Darkness
- Band
- Talon: guitars, vocals
- Nefastus: guitars
- Pata: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Placid in Pale
- 02. Flame Salvation
- 03. Red Serpent Coil
- 04. Tempested
- 05. Sole Crow’s Carrier
- 06. Crowning the Nameless Heir
- 07. Beggars’ Haven
- 08. Grand Tidal Rave
- 09. Born from the Womb of Chaos
- 10. In Wait
- 11. Locust Fields Forever