Unkindness of Ravens

Unkindness of Ravens are an Irish gothic rock/metal band formed in 2014 in Tipperary, Ireland. Their debut album Under Stolen Skies was released in November 2015 on now defunct label Dura Gesta Records, based in Michigan in the United States. The band's first single "Leanan Sídhe" was released simultaneously with an accompanying video which explored themes around ancient Irish mythological characters and was filmed in The Burren and Slieve Bloom Mountains. The band is fronted by Darren Keegan and the band's style has been described as "melancholic and dramatic".
Formation and history
The band was created by Keegan with drummer Daryl Hogan and keyboardist Danielle Egan. In early 2016 the band lineup grew to include Shane Fitzgerald on guitar and Philly Brett on bass guitar. All the members of the band come from County Tipperary in the Irish midlands.
In 2015, the band featured on national broadcaster RTÉ Lyric FM's show Nova, presented by Bernard Clarke and discussed experimental methods of making music adopted for the album, including removing the chimes from a grandfather clock to be played as a musical instrument and salvaging an old, almost rotten piano from a derelict barn in the Irish countryside. In 2016, the group opened for Esoteric at the bi-annual Siege Of Limerick Festival in Dolans and performed at the Electric Meadow Festival in Lviv, Ukraine.
In February 2017, the band released their second studio album, The Perfect Dark - a 100-minute long double album on US label Domestic Genocide Records. The release of the album was accompanied by a video for the first single "The Wolf and the Hound", which was filmed in Leap Castle and its Bloody Chapel, a historic site with a colourful history of paranormal and occult activity widely recorded in Irish folklore. The band were the first musical group to film in the Castle, granted access by the Castle's owner and fellow musician, Sean Ryan.
In late 2017, rhythm guitarist Shane Fitzgerald departed the group and the band moved to newly established Irish record label Wolftrap Records. In March 2018, the band released their third studio album, Beautiful Tragedies and released a video for the first single "Leda and the Swan". The video was filmed on the Holy Island of Monaincha and in the ruins of Monaincha Church in the Irish midlands, one of the oldest monastic sites in the world, which was once an island and first constructed by the monk Elisarius in the 6th Century. The lyrics of the song were taken from William Butler Yeats controversial poem Leda and the Swan from his collection The Tower - which explores the myth of Leda and the swan in explicit terms.
Style
Unkindness of Ravens style has been described as a "dark form of independently minded, slightly gothic-rock". The band have cited Jim Morrison and The Doors, Fields of the Nephilim, Thin Lizzy, and Sopor Æternus & the Ensemble of Shadows among their influences.
Members
* Darren Keegan - Vocals & guitar
* Daryl Hogan - Drums
* Danielle Egan - Keyboards & synthesisers
* Philly Brett - Bass guitar
Discography
Studio releases
* Wolftrap Mountain (EP 2014)
* Under Stolen Skies (2015)
* The Perfect Dark (2017)
* Beautiful Tragedies (2018)
 
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