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Bloodaxe is a band from Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada. Where exactly is that? Well, Thunder Bay could be considered the equivalent to certain northern regions of Norway as far as weather goes. So here we have what some of termed Canadian Viking Metal. The main person behind this band is a man named Nordavinden, who has Nordic heritage and pride in his background, hence the Nordic themes in his music. This isn’t typical Viking Metal though; there are not a lot of folk elements for example, instead this is raw, brutal, and fast Black Metal with Viking themes in the lyrics and some folk passages used as short interludes in between songs. There isn’t one band that I can point to to give an idea of what Bloodaxe sound like, but the closest would be Enslaved, although Bloodaxe is very far from an Enslaved clone. Every non-instrumental song is very fast with almost non-stop blast beats, mixed with fills and breaks every now and then, and heavily distorted Black Metal riffing that produces some interesting melodies, which are barely audible under the brutality and noise created by Bloodaxe, which in turn gives off an unique atmosphere. The vocals are not done in a typical Black Metal style, they tend to be somewhat intermittent and have varying tones. You can’t really hear them that well due to the production, which is one of my only complaints, because they do sound perfect for the music being played. A lot of bands like this, that contain one main person doing pretty much everything, fall into the habit of using a drum machine for their percussion work- Vintersorg and Odhinn come to mind first. Thankfully, Nordavinden was smart and uses Rati as his session drummer- a very wise choice. As mentioned, there are quite a few instrumentals on here. Two of them are about 1 minute long acoustic tracks, which are well played, and then the others use various sounds to create yet again, unique, bleak sounding atmospheres, especially 1030, which is like a regular Bloodaxe song, minus the vocals, but the real difference is that the song is mid-paced. The best of the regular tracks are Within The Walls Of Eljudnir and Drowning In Mimir's Well, which in my opinion contain the best use of the Black Metal melodies. The music being played is not the most technical, but it is damn fast and precise. Overall I enjoyed Bloodthrone for what it’s worth, i.e. a largely independent release with little production values and a short length (nothing wrong with that with a band like this). Obviously, for a relatively unknown label like White Legends, the production won’t be perfect and it isn’t, even for a Raw Black Metal band, but it is not bad either, far from it. The main thing about this release though, is that Bloodaxe did some interesting work with the acoustic songs and the mid-paced instrumental. I can’t help but wonder if including sections like these in the actual full-out songs would be beneficial to the bands sound? I personally think it would be beneficial, further adding to the potential and possibilities within the unique and blistering atmosphere already created by Bloodaxe. This release won’t be for everyone, only Raw Black Metal fans should apply, but chances are you’ll enjoy it if you’re into this style of Brutal Black Metal. If you want to know more about the band go to their official page, where you can easily purchase their release for a good price and download some MP3’s to get an idea of what it sounds like. As for me, I’m looking forward for their next release, Raping The Ancient, which I believe will be out 2003. |
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Killing Songs : Runemaster, Within The Walls Of Eljudnir, Drowning In Mimir's Well, Old One In The Ironwood |
Crims quoted 75 / 100 | |||||
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