Artist: Blood Thirsty Demons
Label: My Graveyard Production
Release: 2007
Rating: 2/5
Blood Thirsty Demons are Italian metalheads from Varese who are behind a trademark they call “horror metal”. The whole thing kind of reeks of the influence of Death SS, also Italians, who formed way back in 1977, since Blood Thirsty Demons borrow a lot of their habits, both in how they dress and in their stage shows. So: slathering on the corpse paint, gothic outfits and the whole concert-as-fun-house theater. The album opens with a narration: ” Ascoltate mi, figli della notte….” Are you all trembling yet? The trick isn’t dumb at all, and with it Blood Thirsty Demons prove they’re fearless, legit metal outcasts who actually dare to reach for a slice of doom these days and weave it into the “classic” sound. But that would have hit home maybe 20 years ago, or more. Today, with all the extremely brutal aerobics we’re witnessing on records and that metal bands crank out by the ton in studios, “Mortal Remains” comes across as downright childishly funny.
The riffs are prehistoric, drawing on the staples of eighties classic metal; there are fleeting flashes that pull you toward some old Mercyful Fate, the aforementioned Death SS, even Black Sabbath or Pentagram. It’s all wrapped in the “sizzle” of some kind of doomy church organs and a high wall of synthesizers in the background that at times almost take over from the riffs. The songs start to grate because of their one-dimensionality, though a more modern production could have saved a lot. The most archaic part of Blood Thirsty Demons’ image on “Mortal Remains” is still the vocals, which can’t deliver much more than the screeching and angry foot-stomping of the wicked witch from the fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel, the kids who ate up her chocolate house. If we add to the vocal performance the compliment that it sounds like a witch who’s Ozzy Osbourne’s sister at the hour of the worst nightmare, that might even be a top-notch compliment. It’s neither normal melodic clean singing nor growling, but something in between. It has an evil edge, but the execution is very weak, too inferior to manage to grab you and stir up any deeper interest or leave any kind of mark on the listener. The guys are very good musicians technically, mind you. It’s just that the ideas they’re offering have, sadly, faded badly by now.
The basic problem with this album is its terribly one-layered approach, archaically chewed over and predictable. The songs sound awfully alike. The production is raw and live, which fits the chosen style the band cultivates just fine.
Out of the material on “Mortal Remains”, the standout is the track Deadly Sins, where the guys neatly combined their “horror” metal. The main riff is interesting, and the song flows smoothly from one motif to the next. The double bass pedal work, the seasoning of a curtain of keyboards, a touch of semitone-shifting “horror” riffing and a dramatic instrumental middle section coexist in an enviable symbiosis and form a fitting base for the vocal approach, whatever it is, as described in one of the paragraphs above. Welcome To My Funeral comes close to this track later on. The album even catches some moments of classic hard rock, like Symphony From The Graves (the riff in the chorus).
With Blood Thirsty Demons you’ve basically got just two options. You either love them or you hate them. It depends on whether the sheer doom of semitone melodics in the riffing pulls you in, and whether the overall dose of evil the band wants to bring to life actually convinces you. Try it for yourself. The album deserves a chance, even though it didn’t win me over. I’d rather spin “Master Of Reality” by Black Sabbath (1973) or “Don’t Break The Oath” by Mercyful Fate (1983) again.
Lineup
Christian Mustaine – guitar, vocals
Jack The Ripper – bass
Karl Skyquake – drums
Tracklist
1. Mortal Remains (02.46)
2. Symphony From The Graves (05.13)
3. Time To Die (04.26)
4. Deadly Sins (05.25)
5. Day By Day (05.56)
6. Welcome To My Funeral (05.12)
7. Upon The Cross (05.00)
8. Roads Of Amenti (05.42)
9. End Of Days (05.24)
Album length: 45.04
