According to the Encyclopaedia Metallum, originally Norwegian sextet Purified in Blood started out as a straight edge vegan metalcore band. Over time this lifestyle took their toll on them and consequentially they split up. Later they reformed and no longer wished to be associated with the straight edge scene, so now they return with great fanfare and full, but happy, bellies full of weak shandy and present to us their second full length, ‘Under Black Skies’.
Once you get past the fashionably pointless intro track, we find Purified in Blood in reasonably fine fettle. ‘Thunderheads’ is a suitably aggressive opener with some interesting nuances. For some reason, they feature dual vocalists, although listening; you’d be hard pressed to tell, similar as they are. They do manage to stay just on the right side of ‘scene’ for the most part, although some of the more melodic vocals do veer close to irritating Howard Jones territory. ‘Death Priest’ is where things are knocked up a notch though, with some nice meaty riffs courtesy of Tommy Svela and Sander Loen. With a title like ‘Under Den Svarte Himmel’, you would be forgiven for expecting a low fi screaming blast of true black metal, but instead, brace yourself for some thrashy deathcore, before things break down to a slower and more deliberate pace, accompanied by a chorus of monks. Or Vikings. Or Viking monks. Whatever it is, it sounds quite reasonable, and fits in well with the overall sound. There is a prog element to ‘Beneath the Pyre’, with some unusual time signatures and changes. There is more than a sniff of Mastodon about this, but then that is understandable given that the album was mixed by Matt Bayles.
‘Mouth Of Doom’ sounds like it should be a Black Sabbath or Candlemass style of track, but despite a slower and more downtuned sound, this is little more than standard deathcore, which is a bit of a shame, as these guys do have a good line in variation for a band of this ilk. It would have been interesting to see what they could have done with a doomy sound. The same can be said of ‘End Is Now’, with a nice slow doom laden riff, but the song itself, and in fact the whole album, whilst by no means bad is lacking in a certain something I can’t quite put my finger on. If anything, I’d say it’s a lack of passion. There’s certainly a good deal of variation throughout here, but the main thing that it is lacking is that one thing that keeps you hooked into any song, album or band. It’s that almost unquantifiable element that just keeps the attention there, and unfortunately I’m quite sure Purified in Blood don’t have that. Even during the likes of ‘Flesh and Frost’, which is quite a dark and rocky number, with some great riffs and a very catchy hook, there’s still that something missing.
I’m glad for Purified in Blood that they decided to continue with things, as they are obviously a talented bunch of guys, and there’s a lot about Under Black Skies to appeal to fans from the various corners of the metalsphere. They have a good knack with songwriting and they are varied and inventive with it. So why can’t I find myself giving this album a glowing review? You see I’ve listened to this album now probably 8 or 9 times over the past couple of weeks, so why does none of it remain in my head when I switch it off? There are elements here that almost certainly should, but I guess overall, that last little important detail seems to be missing. It strangely reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Bart sells his soul to Millhouse.
http://www.myspace.com/purifiedinblood
