RAVENWOODS (sample track from new album added!)

The Story So Far...The Soulside Execution of RAVENWOODS began in 1998. At a time when metal scene was dominated by either jolly melodies of European copycat bands or fake teen angst of American nu-metal (so called) rockstars. Fortunately guitar players Cihan ENGIN and Ozan YILDIRIM had something different in their minds. They formed the band to welcome the black hearts and the black hearts embraced them in return with enthusiasm leading RAVENWOODS to book gigs in their hometown quite rapidly. By the first constant line-up established, the band started composing for the debut release,"In Silent Agony" MCD which was recorded at Zoo Sound Studio in 2001 and released by the same label. The music was melodic raw black metal with ice cold keyboard melodies. Right after the release of the MCD, RAVENWOODS performed at local gigs & festivals and built up a very intense reputation among the Turkish audience.They also got very good reviews from German ROCK HARD Magazine after their performance at the Rock Station Festival. In 2003, the band had line-up changes. Former members recruited Cihan AKUN on guitars and Aybars ALTAY on vocals. Ozan switched from guitars to drums and the band started writing new material.
A new era has begun for the band. The music progressed into more a guitar-based structure after leaving keyboards off their sound. Eight new tracks were recorded at MIDASIN KULAKLIGI Studio (Erkan Tatoglu & Cuneyt Caglayan) in 2005 for the album "...And Emotions Are Spilled", and they signed with Atlantis Music for a 2006 release. The debut album has both old-school and modern elements of black metal & death metal inlcuding doomy parts with both aggressive and emotional clean vocals, crushing guitars and acoustic ambient parts. Mercan Dede, worldwide famous Ney artist of Sufi music also made a collaboration with the band and was featured in the album in various songs. His soulful & mystic instrumental parts helped RAVENWOODS to reach more depth in their sound without doubt. The cover artwork was done by critically acclaimed photography artist Mehmet Turgut. “...And Emotions Are Spilled” was eventually praised by both Turkish audience and metal media, led them to play with Europe’s leading acts like Orphaned Land and Sodom. With the production quality of the debut album they were also called as “the band setting the new standards for the extreme metal in Turkey”. RAVENWOODS also had some line-up changes shortly after the debut’s release. Semih "Barbar" ORNEK (ex-Cenotaph, Self Torture) got behind the drums and Emre UREN of Turkish brutal death metallers Decimation joined the band to share the six string duties with Cihan ENGIN.
Now it’s time for RAVENWOODS to work on their sophomore full-length, they kicked off the rehearsals and recording sessions on March 2008 and looking forward to sign with a new label. RAVENWOODS want the World... and they want it NOW!