Better known as the vocalist and drummer for Floridian Death Metal legends Obituary, John and Donald Tardy here take some time off from their day job to play, well, can you possibly begin to imagine what these two might do with a side-project? Without any constraints, any preconceptions, no limits, think of what they could choose to do. Would the Tardys go Prog on us? Perhaps a little Black Metal? Heck, Grindcore? Disco?

Of course not, obviously, you guessed it, Bloodline is good old-fashioned Floridian Death Metal. Fear not, however, since this isn’t quite the same thing that you’re used to hearing from this duo – the ‘horror’ Doom aspect that marks Obituary out as being so original is gone, but rather than making Tardy Brothers a project that sounds exactly the same as the other Death Metal bands out there, this gives them a bit of room to explore away from the tomblike walls of Obituary. Four guitarists in total contributed to this album, including the one and only Ralph Santolla and the original Executioner guitarist Jerry Tidwell, as well as 19 year old guitar prodigy John Li and long time Tardy-friend and guitarist Scott Johnson. As you’d expect from the presence of Santolla alone, Bloodlines is full to the brim of kickass riffs and solos, and they’re pretty much all excellent. I’m not generally one to spend to long on technical aspects of an album, but Ralph Santolla has been at the forefront of some of Death Metal’s best solos recently, with his work for Deicide and Obituary, and he outdoes himself here – of course, I have no way of knowing who plays what solo, but they are all awesome, and if you like a good solo then you’ll like this album – simple as that.

Although in many ways this is straight-up Death Metal, Tardy Brothers still do manage to surprise you a couple of times. Apart from Wired, a short melodic instrumental, the biggest shock is Scream Descendent, which could almost be a riff-heavy instrumental Power Metal song were it not for the few gurglings that John spews over the top. It’s a great song, as are others like Fade Away that are melodic almost to the point of excess, and in truth the album drags when the guitar god Santolla and his cohorts aren’t doing their glorious thing. Still, it’s far from dreadful; opener Bring You Down is catchy as hell, and sets the tone well for the album, closely followed by the title track and Deep Down, probably the most Obituary-ian song on offer, but being honest most of the songs sound rather samey. The main attraction of Bloodline is the guitarwork, first and foremost. It’s not quite the blood-splattered death-truck pictured on the artwork, recklessly ploughing its way through the modern pretenders to the throne, but if you like awesome guitar solos in your Death Metal (and frankly, who doesn’t?) then the Tardy Brothers are definitely worth a try. Pull a beer, lay back in the sun, and rock out.