Bloodrose - Into Oblivion
2002 - Retribute Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Retribute Records website.
Risen from the ashes of extreme metal band Hatework in 1994, Bloodrose are Finland's latest addition to the melodic black metal ranks. As a result of nearly eight years' experience behind them, it's no surprise that their debut CD 'Into Oblivion' is polished and played to the level of squeaky-clean perfection that the genre requires - but in these days where anyone who can apply their own corpsepaint and do a fair bit of sixteenth-note strumming is pulling on their spiked armlets and forming a band, is that enough to justify Bloodrose's existence?
Well, luckily, it seems as though this particular example of the style have remembered that melodicism does not necessarily have to take second place to extremity, and Bloodrose succeed where others have failed by managing to summon the spirit of their Norwegian forbearers through some extremely vicious blast-beat led black metal, complete with flesh-stripping riffs and hook-filled melodies. 'Shattered Dreams', for example, throws a small passage into the midsection with a single, reverbed clean guitar melody before blasting straight back into the fray.
Occassionally reminiscent of 'Dusk And Her Embrace'-era Cradle Of Filth, Bloodrose score points over Dani's corpsepaint crew by leaving the keyboards to accentuate the melodies and provide atmosphere, rather than going overboard in a Dimmu Borgir manner and letting them ride roughshod over the riffs altogether. There is the issue that the songs become a little samey over the course of the album, and that for a melodic black metal band there really doesn't seem to be anything much in the way of solos or lead breaks - but perhaps that isn't the point. Everything on the album is played tightly and to perfection, after all.
The main issue I have with Bloodrose is the same issue I've had with practically every black metal band since hearing Akercocke and Anaal Nathrakh - the sense that innovation is a nearly dead art, being left in the admittedly capable hands of a depressingly small cadre of black metallers, while the rest merely seem content to rehash what's gone before. There's nothing spectacularly new here, nothing really to distinguish Bloodrose from the pack. But, if you're a fanatical follower of melodic black metal, perhaps you'll be as enthralled with Bloodrose as I would have been about three years ago...
7/10
2002 - Retribute Records
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Retribute Records website.
Risen from the ashes of extreme metal band Hatework in 1994, Bloodrose are Finland's latest addition to the melodic black metal ranks. As a result of nearly eight years' experience behind them, it's no surprise that their debut CD 'Into Oblivion' is polished and played to the level of squeaky-clean perfection that the genre requires - but in these days where anyone who can apply their own corpsepaint and do a fair bit of sixteenth-note strumming is pulling on their spiked armlets and forming a band, is that enough to justify Bloodrose's existence?
Well, luckily, it seems as though this particular example of the style have remembered that melodicism does not necessarily have to take second place to extremity, and Bloodrose succeed where others have failed by managing to summon the spirit of their Norwegian forbearers through some extremely vicious blast-beat led black metal, complete with flesh-stripping riffs and hook-filled melodies. 'Shattered Dreams', for example, throws a small passage into the midsection with a single, reverbed clean guitar melody before blasting straight back into the fray.
Occassionally reminiscent of 'Dusk And Her Embrace'-era Cradle Of Filth, Bloodrose score points over Dani's corpsepaint crew by leaving the keyboards to accentuate the melodies and provide atmosphere, rather than going overboard in a Dimmu Borgir manner and letting them ride roughshod over the riffs altogether. There is the issue that the songs become a little samey over the course of the album, and that for a melodic black metal band there really doesn't seem to be anything much in the way of solos or lead breaks - but perhaps that isn't the point. Everything on the album is played tightly and to perfection, after all.
The main issue I have with Bloodrose is the same issue I've had with practically every black metal band since hearing Akercocke and Anaal Nathrakh - the sense that innovation is a nearly dead art, being left in the admittedly capable hands of a depressingly small cadre of black metallers, while the rest merely seem content to rehash what's gone before. There's nothing spectacularly new here, nothing really to distinguish Bloodrose from the pack. But, if you're a fanatical follower of melodic black metal, perhaps you'll be as enthralled with Bloodrose as I would have been about three years ago...
7/10
