Released By : Violent Journey Records
Genre : Thrash Metal
Links : http://www.myspace.com/bloodride666
Tracklist:
01. There Will Be Blood
02. March Of The Dead
03. Straight From Hell
04. Slave Of Evil
05. Cain
06. Demon’s Way
07. God
08. Promised
09. Thrown Into Darkness (Unholy War)
Even though this BLOODRIDE are releasing their full length debut in 2011 and they play old-school trash, they aren’t a new band and the Finnish fellas that make up the line-up are all seasoned veterans of the Finnish thrash metal scene and have between them been involved with bands like LEGENDA, FAFF-BEY and SENTENCED.
What this means is that it’s easier to handle listening to this type of music from some old-hats rather than some of the old-school inspired thrash bands that come out with a line-up full of kids. Obviously if old-school thrash metal isn’t your thing, BLODRIDE don’t really have much else to offer, but if is then CROWNED IN HELL is an album worthy of your time & money and I think it was a wise move for Violent Journey Records to pick them up with they did as with songs this good is was surely just a matter of time until somebody else beat them to it.
Being decidedly old-school in its approach, there is nothing nice and sweet about this album, no big voal harmonies, no melodic passages or acoustic sections… no this is pure neck-breaking, dirty thrash metal from start to stop. Depending on what you like this can either be a negative thing or a positive thing, but for me at least I think it’s great because there are plenty of bands these day trying to add melody and feeling into thrash metal, but the fact is that the genre is at its best when it is uncompromising and unrelenting, two buzz words that more than suit the music found here. The band are great musically, and the songwriting is frenetic and done very well, but the ace in the deck here would have to be vocalist Jyka Leskinen who has a voice that is a cross between eighties thrash, old-school death metal and a gargled bag of razor blades chased down with a case of whiskey. Unfortunately for me though, because Jyka has a natural Finnish accent, when you combine that with a more aggressive sounding vocal approach it does make some of the lyrics quite hard to understand, which is again hampered by the fact that the album doesn’t come with lyrics in the booklet.
CROWNED IN HELL is not a revelation or anything of the sort, it’s just a good, honest album that throws some purebred old-school thrash straight at your face for just over half an hour and is a worthy investment for thrash metal fans young and old.
Written By ZeeZee
Rating 8/10
