Ravencult

Morbid Blood (Hells Headbangers)

Leave it to the Greeks to revitalize the old school and, in doing so, wreak subtly righteous havoc with a tried-and-true formula. Watain douses black metal with real goat gore, but this Athens quartet imbues the Scandinavian hybrid with the rootsy, post-Motörhead deforestation of Celtic Frost. Second coming Morbid Blood rides hell-bent for leather, thrashing a withered English caw and ravenous guitar. The only difference between the gleefully unrelenting first “Side Morbid” and second “Side Blood” is immersion and conversion.

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This article appears in August 26 • 2011.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.