The Bleeding are a London based death/thrash metal band and Rites Of Absolution is their brilliant debut full length album. The Bleeding take elements of old school thrash metal and old school death metal and fuse them together resulting in an album that sounds old school and sharp and modern helped by the clear production job on the album. This is a band that isn't afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves with many of the riffs bringing to mind thrash and death metal bands from the mid eighties to early nineties.
The vocals on the album sit somewhere between a thrashy snarl and a throaty death metal scream. As a massive fan of old school thrash and death metal this album brought a huge smile to my face and will definitely appeal to fans of both subgenres. Highlights include the savage title track (which is available to stream on the band's Bandcamp page), Consumed Existence, Crook And Flail and a faithful cover of Death's Open Casket. A highly impressive and enjoyable debut album. 8/10
Aldaria: Land Of Light (Pride & Joy Music)
Aldaria are an all-star power metal supergroup masterminded by Frode Hovd of Memorized Dreams. The only solid member is Frode Hovd himself who also writes all the music but the album features a whole host of guest vocalists and musicians. On the musicians front you have guests such as Jimmy Hedlund of Falconer, Roland Grapow of Masterplan (who also mixed the album), Mike Lepond of Symphony X and Uli Kusch formerly of Helloween. On the vocalists front you have appearances from Fabio Lione of Rhapsody Of Fire, Jonas Heidgart of Dragonland and Tommy ReinXeed of ReinXeed. These are just a tiny selection of the guests involved.
The album itself Land Of Light is a concept album and uses the metal opera style previously established by Avantasia. The music throughout is symphonic power metal performed effortlessly by the plethora of talented musicians and singers involved. Unfortunately the songwriting just doesn't really hold up with very few memorable songs or melodies throughout. This album also lacks in the originality department as well with the storyline behind the concept sounding very similar to Avantasia's The Metal Opera. When this album does get to shine though it can be very enjoyable with tracks such as Guardians Of The Light, Lost In The Darkness Below and Answers In A Dream being particular highlights. When it comes to a new metal opera project comparisons with Avantasia are going to be inevitable and whilst it has its moments this album just doesn't hold up to the project which spearheads the metal opera sound.
6/10
Game Over: Blessed Are The Heretics (Scarlet Records)
Blessed Are The Heretics is the latest EP by Italian retro thrashers Game Over and they seem to have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink. The EP comprises of a brand new song, an Italian language re-recording of an old song, a cover song and a bunch of live tunes. Things get off to a start with the new song which is the title track of the EP which is a nice melodic mid paced thrasher with plenty of crunch. Following that is Mai Più which is an Italian version of No More off the Burst Into The Quiet EP which doesn't really add anything to the original.
The most interesting track on the album is the thrash metal cover of You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) by Dead Or Alive which although a strange choice for a thrash cover actually really works. The live tracks that follow are chock full of energy and of good recording quality. Blessed Are The Heretics is a nice selection of odds and ends from Game Over but is an unessential release and one really only for hardcore fans of the band. 6/10
The most interesting track on the album is the thrash metal cover of You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) by Dead Or Alive which although a strange choice for a thrash cover actually really works. The live tracks that follow are chock full of energy and of good recording quality. Blessed Are The Heretics is a nice selection of odds and ends from Game Over but is an unessential release and one really only for hardcore fans of the band. 6/10
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