With its stunning artwork and a concept covering themes of power, avarice and corruption, Craven Idol’s The Shackles Of Mammon promises to be a scathing, angry and cohesive statement. And for the first four tracks Craven Idol certainly sound spitting mad. Pyromancer and A Ripping Strike are absolutely raging black thrash of the old Kreator/Destruction variety, Black Flame Divination is awesome Venom-style hooliganism and The Trudge is epic Bathory-worship. But cohesion proves to be a problem as the rumbling Dashed To Death and Mammon Est prove largely forgettable and, although they are decent enough tracks, Hunger and the doomy album-closer Tottering Cities Of Men struggle to regain the listeners attention. Fans of crusty venomous metal will find lots to like here but the album frustratingly fails to capitalise on the in-your-face intensity of its first half. Overall, The Shackles Of Mammon scrapes above average but there’s a shitload of promise here if the band can deliver with more consistency.
HEAVY METAL OVERLOAD 
I don’t know the music, but I love the title.
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Love that cover too.
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Am listening to A Ripping Strike as I type this. EPIC! Hahaha wow that’s intense.
Shame it didn’t nail it from stem to gudgeon. Maybe they’ll find your review and get it right next time! 😉
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Hopefully! The first half is totally blistering. Should have made it an EP.
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Also, that is still some amazing cover art. Seriously, that rules.
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Ach. So an EP would have been the better option here, eh? Shame that cover art is wasted a bit.
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Not wasted. The second side is still decent. But that first side… woah. They needed to keep that up but it just feels like it runs out of steam a bit. I’d give it about 3.5/5 overall so still not a bad effort!
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That’s not bad, but that cover doesn’t deserve decent!
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True!
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So many acts lose steam on side 2….it’s funny the artists themselves must go …”ummm right jam these tunes at the end and hopefully HMO won’t catch on!” hahaha
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HMO always catches on!
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I prefer my venomous metal non-crusty.
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I think the crustiness is a side effect from all the venom though. I’m going to go and see the doctor about it.
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There’s something appealing about a group that sounds like they have potential – particularly if it sounds like they have that universally recognized quantity to indicate a lot of it!
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Exactly! And you can’t get more promise than that either. It’s the maximum amount.
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