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Blood - Seppuku


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I haven’t listened to any heavy album for quite a long time, especially from Spain and in the native language, so I turned to this album with great interest to check out what do they actually know about metal in sunny countries.
Blood exists since 1999 and it has released 4 albums so far: ‘0.08atm’, ‘Psike’, now reviewed ‘Seppuku’ and this year’s ‘X-Cultura". In 2006 they also released EP ‘G.E.N.’. Their inspirations include bands such as Oomph!, Rammstein, Paradise Lost, Depeche Mode and Tristania. However, while listening to ‘Seppuku’ I heard mostly Rammstein’s influence.

I’ll start from the end – from my overall impression after the last note of this album died away. The impression was as if one sunny day Rammstein met a simple-hearted and simple-mined metalhead and next came across a gothic keyboards enthusiast.
And paradoxically, this is how ‘Seppuku’ was born.

The album opens with ‘Progenie’, in which keyboards attract the most attention, thanks to them the whole doesn’t sound that much like a copy of Rammstein’s ‘Sonne’, which still reverberates though. The following ‘Vudu’ is an industrial metal blast with the dominance of guitars and an ultra simple rhythm section in the background. Keyboards added in the refrain diversify this simplicity a bit. Then ‘Ion+’, slow, simple and atmospheric composition, which again, without keyboards, would be too simple and boring.
‘Exilo’ is a completely different story. Here electronic sounds are of great importance and, contrary to the previous songs, it is sophisticated, when it comes to composition. Subsequent ‘Jibaro’ would be a really nice, catchy, simple, metal tune, if it wasn’t for choked vocals, which disturb a great melody line, and unnecessarily simplified guitars. In ‘Red de indra’ futurepop reverberates – it would sound great if it was remixed. ‘Apostol’ – is a fantastic composition, because of the focus on the band’s best – keyboards. They dominate almost over the whole composition, creating a magnificent background on the verge of goth and ebm. The guitars added at the end fulfilled their function, that is, because of their simplicity, they were only an addition. The whole is spoilt by vocals which sound similar to every other song and I would preferably throw them away.
The last 3 compositions – ‘Gotika’, ‘Conciencia’ and ‘Egos’ are remixes. ‘Gotika’ got a wild tempo, a few bpms too fast for me as for dancing, but whatever you like. For a change ‘Conciencia’ has a slow tempo with a hint of futurepop, but the whole remix may be categorized as soft, it is hardly audible. On the other hand, in ‘Egos’ someone doubtlessly played with electronics. What attracted my attention are massacred vocals, which are sometimes more and sometimes less audible, same for music.
At the end the band added ‘Red de Indra’ in a form of bonus, which is massacred by out of tune, female vocals. Listening to this one is a torment. Maybe it was supposed to be an artistic use of dissonances, but in order to do that one must have solid vocals and a good plan, whereas here we don’t have any of these factors.

Let’s conclude. In its album Blood exploits Rammstein with a huge excavator. The impression that Blood copy their style occurs to me every 10 seconds. Vocals are a mistake - he has either no talent or he doesn’t want to show off. Typically growling – confronted with a more complicated melody turns into a choked hoarseness. Guitar is too simple for me, it sounds as if the guitarist had only recently learned a few riffs. Keyboards are the one and only redeeming feature, without them the music would be bland. I really liked only the first two songs and partly ‘Apostol’. There is something to it, but there are some concrete improvements needed if I am to listen to Blood effortlessly and with pleasure.

Track list:

01. Progenie
02. Vudu
03. Ion+
04. Exilio
05. Jibaro
06. Red de Indra
07. Apostol
08. Gotika (M.C.R. Remix)
09. Conciencia (Skanner Replica Remix)
10. Egos (Animassacre Remix)
11. Red de Indra (Bonus Track)
Author:
Translator: Vixen
Add date: 2012-04-01 / Music reviews


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