Artist: Blood Tsunami
Title: Grand Feast For Vultures
Type: Album
Label: Candlelight Records
Naming your debut album with any such kind of brash statement as ‘Thrash Metal’ will leave you open to a whole barrage of finger-wagging critics, and truth be told I had my apprehensions when I first heard about the band. “Oh no, another modern thrash band” and “Faust should stick to black metal” were my initial thoughts, until I found the album for the wallet-friendly price of £4 and decided to take a chance…and when I pressed play I found myself choking on my words. What this was, was a neat example of modern thrash metal with a few blackened touches; nothing groundbreaking, but certainly enjoyable and worthy of sticking on the decks for a good old fashioned headbanging sesh.
Grand Feast Of Vultures follows on quite neatly from where they left off in 2007. Certainly there have been no changes on the radar, read as you will…but I say if it ain’t broke, why fix it? There were no surprises here and what I got was pretty much what I was expecting. Title track ‘Grand Feast For Vultures’ bursts in with a frenetic assault of thundering drums courtesy of Faust and lightning fast guitars. The caustic rasp of Pete Evil actually doesn’t sound all that evil; his vocals are not outstandingly unique but it must be said that they are far more exciting that those of many of these modern thrash metal bands that lean further into the death metal camp.
‘Laid To Waste’ begins with something of a neo-Destruction feel to it, with some classic thrash metal riffing that throws some furious death-tinged downpicking into things adding a feel of urgency. In all honesty, there is very little variation between tracks on this album and I can’t help but feel it is all a bit two-dimensional. It doesn’t exactly make my hair stand on end, but it is competent enough and could happily have it playing in the background without it being too much of a distraction. We are driven ‘One Step Closer To The Grave’ through a rather portentous opening that leads into a melody that is not only heavy, but also filled with enough atmosphere to compensate for the rest of the album. The slow double bass drum beat has a crisp sound, and there is a very modern sheen to this that will no doubt divide opinion. This album won’t blow you away, but it should have you banging your head through these seven tracks.
http://www.myspace.com/bloodtsunami
Luci Herbert
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