Bloodbound - Nosferatu 4/5
Reviewed: 3-31-06
Tracklist:
1. Behind the moon
2. Into the dark
3. Nosferatu
4. Metal monster
5. Crucified
6. Desdemonamelia
7. Fallen from grace
8. Screams in the night
9. For the king
10. Midnight sun
11. On the battlefield
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"A word that meant Undead..." Or, as my friend's custom made Helstar T-shirt in college read, "A word that ment Undead..." Well, regardless of spelling errors, this magnificent traditional metal CD featuring always controversial (ex) Tad Morose singer Urban Breed is a gleaming gem for those who appreciate classic Dio, Rainbow, Tony Martin Sabbath at its best, along with the modern representatives of Nocturnal Rites and (quite appropriately) Tad Morose, but raised to a more dynamic and exciting level.
First off, judge not this book by the cover. The band's picture, if not the cover and titles themselves, gives you the impression this is 100%, throat scraping, blast beating, garbage can banging black metal, in ominous corpse paint. I suppose it's a far different world then when I was first perusing metal CDs in the record store, without metal friends or internet sources of information, and all I had to judge the band on, oh so carefully trying to guess from the pictures, titles, and even other bands thanked as to whether this was the type of music I love. Had that been the case, this wouldn't have gotten a 2nd look, but this couldn't be farther from that image musically.
Stylewise, as noted, this is very much in the speedier realm of Sabbath's 'Headless cross' and 'Tyr', Dio's 'Dream evil', the classic Rainbow worshipped in the northern European reaches, and the most recent releases by Tad Morose and Nocturnal Rites. Like the first "new" style Nocturnal Rites, 'Afterlife', it has a tremendous amount of energy and power to it, a sense of constantly dynamic, aggressive, and yet beautifully melodic guitar work that bands like this sometimes slow down and forget. This is the opposite, the soul burning, fantastically emotional vocal lines are instead complemented with energetic guitar work that is magnificently evocative and is, to quote Judas Priest, apparently "Never satisfied" with merely delivering a satisfactory and adequate song, but pushing more and more into each anthem.
The choruses will quickly pull into your head and suck you in, with generally applicable heavy metal lyrical subjects, while even tracks like "Metal monster" could appear trite in the old Anthrax "Metal thrashing mad" vein, the glory with which they are delivered doesn't allow you to think about it, while most of the other topics rise in "Beyond the moon", "On the battlefield", and "Into the dark" rise far beyond that level. Thoroughly recommended for fans of this style of melodic, classic, epic heavy metal, and definitely one of the best CDs of the past few months.
CRAIG
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