Raven Woods

Raven Woods was founded by Ozan Yıldirim and Cihan Engin in 1998, Ankara-TR. The band, that chose the melodic black metal path in those years, published their first mcd “In Silent Agony” after agreeing terms with Zoo Sound Records. With this debut, Raven Woods played in many gigs and festivals, spreading their name by meeting the audience in every chance that they could find. Especially with their performance at RS Fest in 2003, the band got full marks from the Rock Hard Magazine, drawing the attention of metalheads from all over the country. Raven Woods continued their series of gigs while suffering from inevitable line-up changes. Only Cihan Engin and Ozan Yildirim were left from the mcd period. The band managed to establish a new line-up by replacing the old members with Cihan Akün (guitars) and Aybars Altay (vocals). Due to the great drummer shortage in Turkey, Ozan picked up the drumsticks for a while and they started working on their first full length album “And Emotions Are Spilled” -which was the beginning of a new era for the band - altogether. During this period, the band signed a deal for an album with Atlantis Music. Following this, «And Emotions Are Spilled…» was released in 2006. The album, which consists of 8 tracks, has both old-school and modern elements of black metal & death metal including 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 so he was featured in the album in various songs. There’s no doubt that his soulful & mystic instrumental melodies helped Raven Woods to reach even deeper in their sound. The cover artwork was created 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, Destruction and Sodom. With the quality of production of the debut album they were also called as “the band setting the new standards for the extreme metal in Turkey”. This album, which was re-printed and published 2 times, is still considered as one of the best albums ever in the Turkish metal scene. After releasing «And Emotions Are Spilled…», Raven Woods had line-up changes, yet again. The current line-up is Kaan Koyuncu-vocals, Cihan Engin-guitars, Ozan Yildirim-bass, Emre Uren-guitars, Semih Ornek-drums. At the end of the year 2010, after signing a deal with the successful & well-known Italian label CODE666, the band started working on their 2nd album «Enfeebling The Throne», and completed the recording process shortly after. Also, the famous Ney artist Mercan Dede joined the band by adding his breath and soul, just like in » And Emotions Are Spilled…», but even more this time. Raven Woods is planning to spread their style of death & black metal combined with the eastern mysticism to the entire world, from where mysticism was born in the first place. The thrones will be so enfeebled, until we bring them down, one by one… Discography: IN SILENT AGONY (2001) 1.Visions against the enchanted gate 2.In loneliness I wither 3.Chained and blind 4.Through the temples of farewell 5.The darkest will rise AND EMOTIONS ARE SPILLED… (2006) 1.Inward Massacre 2.Bone House Corporation 3.Ravenwoods 4.Soulside Execution 5.Betray 6.Collapse 7…And Emotions Are Spilled 8.Stolen & Erased ENFEEBLING THE THRONE (2011) Code 666 Records - ITALY RELEASE DATE : APRIL 1 2011 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.