Everyday is Halloween, sang the great minds of yesteryear. With pumpkin season approaching, it was time to get into the right spirit (well, you know us: spirits often sob alongside us, and those of Halloween are never far away)! Good news: Raven Black's circus (not to be confused with Raven Black, nothing to do with them, the ones we're interested in are from California while the others are German) is back in town! What's hidden behind that shabby big marquee that only lets us glimpse a few misshapen silhouettes? Grab some candyfloss and a ticket, we're going to check it out together!
Feeling nostalgic for Stolen Babies and Creature Feature? Can't wait for Tardigrade Inferno's next album? Then you should find something here to fill you up with sweets and dance with the skeletons you hide in your basement the rest of the year! Raven Black knows all the tricks of the trade: catchy rhythms, twisted nursery rhymes, circus music, joyfully sinister choirs, gothic faitytales atmospheres and Danny Elfman's ghost wiggling like crazy... we feel like lunatics who can suddenly escape their cells: a dangerous amount of fun lies ahead! In their latest album, Raven's Diary, Raven Black showeda more intimate and introspective face, more haunting and poetic too... this time, the trio returns to more light-hearted fare, reconnecting with both the quirkiness of The Key and the violence of 13 and it feels juste like home(icide) !
From the very start of the show, we find ourselves jolted by the frenzied dancing of Circus Hell, an opportunity to invite the ‘trolls and haters’ to join the circus and become part of the show themselves, followed by the heavier, more sombre tones of Death Waltz. Compared to the bands mentioned above, Raven Black is more violent (well, if we forget the black metal flashes of Stolen Babies): backing growls, drums that smash our heads, decapitated by sharp guitars... The band borrows a few gimmicks from nu-metal (Torture Box, with its industrial metal overtones, smacks of the 2000s, with their outrageous make-up and wide-angle music videos), while adding a few more demonstrative guitar riffs (Dead).
The tracks flow the enthusiasm of blood spurting from a wound: a melancholic interlude with folk/americana influences (Never Say Goodbye) opens the door to an intense, gothic title track featuring piano and violin. Then, I'm Just a Doll slows down the pace to deepen the darkness, while This Little Piggy and Rockstar dazzle us with the frenzy of a horde of possessed kids who have overdosed on candyfloss. Amidst all this amusing chaos, however, there is a sincerity in the emotions, a few cathartic explosions of rage, bitterness and despair that add to the spectres already parading around, lending an extra touch of soul (the creepy Soul or the more aggressive Fuck You).
The most important thing about Black Sonata, ultimately, is that it's a fun album. Raven Black traps us in its whirlwind of energy, a joyful mess that's often chaotic but full of ideas and spirit. We gladly join this bizarre parade, joyfully dirty and nasty, to mock and take revenge on all the arrogant, rotten, normal Muggles.
