We last saw Jimmy Petkoff, the mastermind behind Aussie doomers RAVEN BLACK NIGHT in a 2019 interview at Old Mans Mettle here. Well, he said he had a new album in the works, and even with all the challenges of 2020, it looks like him and Rino have pulled it off. Run With The Raven ( out at the end of October ) carries on the vibe of 2010’s doomy Barbarian Winter, but with more of a 70s heavy metal feel, with resonant drums, lots of room reverb, crunching doom power-chord shapes, and plenty of guitar solos. And Jimmy still has the deepest vocal vibrato you are likely to hear in this scene, making them a unique act indeed. If you like their raw Aussie doom rock so far, then there are some real standout tracks on this disk – Waterworld, Searching Your Love, and Sheeba notably, with the others taking a couple of listens to appreciate. This album would be great to see live with a beer, maybe in a dusty 1980s Mad Max-era desert saloon, with an Australian Cattle Dog growling at anyone who forgot to clap afterwards. Take a listen to the ‘single’ track Sheeba here, and then listen to what Jimmy, a man who is in the rehearsal room all week long, has to say about the new release.

Hi Jimmy, how have things been since we last spoke? Lockdown hasn’t stopped you knocking out a new album!

Hi scott and all your readers great to chat again ,the album was mastered in nov 2019,then early this year before the lockdown,we started going through options for its release.Once we bacame involved with SAOL/CMM it went overdrive getting masters sent and artwork done,devolping a plan with the SAOL team.Also we made sure we had a few promotion clips ready to add visual impact something we have lacked before.Me and Rino kepy writing and jamming during the worst of restrections, we felt like we were musical gorillas going to the jam room but kept our mind of the state of the planet,but like many bands there will be plenty to write about this point in history.

You enjoyed playing the guitar on this, I can tell…. 😉

Hey I am glad you noticed,I guess in the past I might have overdubbed to many guitars and things could get lost.I really wanted for this release to be like the attitude of led zepplin one or black sabbaths first album and have a clear rhythm and if possible my bed solos give and take.The songs also guided me,a few intresting things like pedals turning of and on by mistake added to it,and in one case the engineer losing  multiple takes of a solo which I got it one take ha!!!!!

Some of the tracks seem to be shaped by the lyrics this time – ‘Fire and Steel’ for instance…

One thing about our songwriting we work on songs for a long period and a certian batch contain a certain constant,if that makes sense sometimes the music is there and I go through my lyrics or they come on the spot and they are adjusted in delivary or style.I guess this batch of songs had a more direct hard rock approach in places.

Overall, was anything different this time, and what can new and old listeners expect?

Yes the things that RAVEN BLACK NIGHT do are always at the core the metal/rock/doom,but on every release we like to push the envalope,A hidden track, a ambient section,a surprise cover on this one we added a bit of American Indian spirtuality,a spoken word passage,Ancient European images.Some times our themes can come back and be reacuring of the charcter.In the end Like Lemmy would say we play ROCK AND ROLL FOR ALL. 

Who is handling the releases worldwide?

Digitally Saol/cmm will be handling it world wide and for physical product they will do Europe and parts of the world with there partners so downloading, grabbing or ordering a copy should be all cool.We will look at options if we handle our home Australia. 

https://www.cmm-marketing.com/r332/Run%20With%20The%20Raven

https://www.cmm-marketing.com/47/NEWS

https://www.cmm-marketing.com/51/SAOL