Bloodhunter – The End of Faith

Bloodhunter from Spain is the brainchild of guitarist Fenris, who seems to have a partiality for Scandinavian Melodic Death Metal, and especially the guitar virtuosity of the mentioned style. After the self-titled debut album, Xtreem Music gave the band a spot in their rooster. “The End of Faith” is an album with 2 faces and I don’t like the look of one of them. You will hear some Modern sounding Melodic Death Metal, in the vein of Angela Gossow-era Arch Enemy (the comparison isn’t made because the vocalist is female as well), typical Metalcore-like staccato riffs and groove (which are played by the At The Gates / The Haunted influenced Metalcore bands), leads in the vein of Michael Amott (and there you have the Arch Enemy link again) and a tiny wink towards Death’s Chuck as well as Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom). The fact the band covered the mighty Death’s “Crystal Mountain”, is a hint of Fenris’ preference…would be surprising if there was a Nunslaughter cover on the album. As you can probably guess, I’m not enjoying the modern and the typical Metalcore-like riffs and groove, like the first 35 seconds of a track like “All these souls shall serve forever”, as it detracts from the good parts of the album. I hope Fenris picks his Arch Enemy’s “Black Earth” and “Stigmata” albums from his collection and give them a frequently spin to gain inspiration. Combined with his fine leads I really think he can make a killer Melodic Death Metal album. But to achieve that he has to drop some musical ideas… (Ricardo)