Ravenbreed released the debut 3-track EP, Hollowed this month and are already taking the local Welsh rock scene by storm!
Even though the guys have only been playing live together since January, they have created a tight sound, both on and off record.
Warren Allen is a more than competent frontman and vocalist, Mikey Watkins takes up lead guitar, Ross Formosa brings the bass and banging the skins is Oli Watkins.
"From Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters, Alter Bridge, Pantera, Motorhead & Guns N Roses to name a few, the influences, based in rock and metal, come together to form a hard rock sound for people who like guitar, bass and drums, and melodies for people who like to sing their hearts out at shows."
And that's certainly what you get.....Go see them! Grab Ravenbreed via their Facebook page.
Insult is a brilliant grinding start that gets us off to epic proportions on this debut, with a gritty riff that we will come to love as a signature Ravenbreed sound. You instantly see yourself at a live show, fists pumping, feet tapping and singing along to the memorable and insanely catchy chorus!
And Lonely doesn’t give us any let up at all! The hard rock kicks straight back in and makes your head bang, whether you want to or not! The gnarly vocals of Warren are superb on this track and probably my favourite one....
The whole band are on point with every track and are exactly the same live!
Falling Away showcases this perfectly by building this anthemic ‘ballad’ with pure passion.
Hollowed certainly whets our appetite for what is to come and when they hit album level...its definitely going to be one to be reckoned with...watch out world Ravenbreed are coming!!!
They were my ‘Ones To Watch’ after seeing them support Those Damn Crows and I would strongly recommend them to anyone and everyone!
I spoke to the lads recently and here is what they had to say!!
You only formed quite recently, played for the first time live in January of this year and are already making waves on the local rock scene, how did Ravenbreed form and why Ravenbreed?
Ravenbreed as an ensemble, have been playing for probably just over two years now, doing covers gigs under another name across various venues to earn some cash to fund equipment such as PA, lights etc.
It didn't take long for the jam sessions to really start getting interesting with original material bellowing out the room, which was always the ambition! We wanted to do it right so we started work on Ravenbreed last summer and built up as much content as possible for everyone to enjoy, it's taken a lot of planning and prepping and we're happy with the results so far!
If I remember correctly, despite mulling over various names for days (even weeks!) we settled on a sort of Viking theme (not for any particular reason other than that's where our heads were at in that moment, history suggests a lot of Brits are likely decendents of Vikings so it felt kinda right), and it conjured up some cool mental images of mythical creatures, after doing some trawling of the internet most of them were rams of some kind, and a rams head didn't really seem to fit somehow haha
We felt like we wanted a bird of some kind, like a hawk, raven or some sort of mythical bird as art work. I myself am into all things mythical and eerier to do with folk stories.
Whilst discussing artwork we thought what type of bird it would be, or if it was a bird, then what breed?.. Bit of a eureka moment someone suggested a raven because it has a strong link to the Viking theme we were thinking of and suddenly someone shouted "Ravenbreed!" and after some further mulling over for another day or so we were set on it.
It may even seem like a sort of unoriginal thought process, but we were actually trying REALLY hard not to pick a name that someone already used, had in use, or was likely to mistake for another band, because that is so common these days and we wanted to make it totally original. So Ravenbreed it became and it spawned our whole logo motif and font etc.
‘Hollowed’ had its digital release on the 18th April and with such a solid sound for a debut EP, you guys are going all out! Will there be physical copies available and tell us a bit about the making of Hollowed and that great sound.
There will be a release of physical copies but not just yet, all we can say is we're currently in talks with a printing company, so keep an eye out for more updates on our social media for this in the coming weeks.
Ravenbreed are gigging as much as possible at the moment and impressing everyone you play to, so would your future plans involve an album, a headline UK tour and all the merch to go with it!? As a fan already, I reckon the tee’s would look awesome with the logo!
Most definitely!! We have many plans in the works to get ourselves out there, we're pushing to get more gigs and potentially a tour is on the cards either this year or next. We have discussed some dates to do the second EP, with more videos and content to go along with it - but those dates are undisclosed for now :)
Merchandise is upon us very soon... so keep an eye out to grab a t-shirt or two! They'll likely be a limited run for now, and if we sell out we will get more made up, but it's possible we might change the design for the next run, so these could be very much a one time only deal!
The future is bright....
....and the raven is coming!
Hollowed EP is now available for streaming and download..
➢ Spotify
➢ Amazon Music
➢ Google Play
➢ Music Videos
➢ Sound Cloud