Bloody Brotherhood - Don't Break The Circle
The album begins with bell chimes. A sick melody over the sound of the wind takes on what I would call an eerie/mystical intro. 'Into The Darkness' thrashes till death. Crawling underneath ripping death'n'roll riffs, the vocals are convincing. There is a nice break with emphatic mid tempo riffs. The riff changes are overall very nice and the band seems to flawlessly lay minimum amount of riff in their songwriting. Still the result is rather effective due to the variety in the way every riff is performed. Obituary and early Death are the first bands that come to mind.
'Kingdom Of Evil' continues in the same path. The vocals are emphatic and more evil this time. There is a horror/occult atmosphere all around. The Mediterraneans are generally good in producing such atmospheric twists is extreme metal. The homonymoys 'Don't Break the Circle' choses doom as the ingredient to show sickness. The riffs are more twisted and encephalic. The bass is supporting the riffs brilliantly keeping it simple, but to the point. I may liked the song if it had a little less repetition in the riffs. The lead melodies are nice, and the themes may have a nice development at times, but don't justify the more than 8 minutes length of the song. 'The Impaler' is a doom/death song whose vocals at slower parts remind me of Mortuary Drape, while in the mid tempo changes the riff is not that interesting. It sounds to me that they don't get the right groove. The Incantation riff around the 5th minute is nice. However, the song is again tiringly long.
'I'm The Shadow (We Are The Shadow)', 'Massacre In The Gates Of Fire', 'Sword Of Ignorance', 'Death To False King', 'Destroyer', And 'Behind The Sacrifice' continue more or less in the same path of old school death metal mixed with doom elements. I really liked a lot the choir in 'Death To False King'. 'Destroyer' also features some very nice guitar work. 'Behind The Sacrifice', the closing song of the album is my favorite. The guitar layers bring on the doom and death awaits behind the door! The bass did an excellent work here again. The atmosphere is of pure magic and even showed black metal influences. Another very long song, but this one is really inspired.
Generally, the band tries to show an occult face and to put forward the horror aesthetics of the old school death metal scene. Spain used to have an excellent scene in the 90s and Bloody Brotherhood surely draw influence from that scene. However their songs here are most of times lengthy and repetitive in a way it doesn't help songwriting much. Although there are some good riffs with an aura that dwells within the standards of the genre and chugging riffs that take the listener way back in time, I feel that at times they lack fluency in the performance or they are repetitive and thus become unconvincing. The doom style is their peak for sure!
Long tracks don't allow them to avoid repeating themselves and although this can be an asset for doom at times it sounded to me tiring. Should it be around 35 minutes long and with some tighter performance and maybe a better production (especially in the drums) that would brighten/clear a bit the instruments (of course keeping the old school vibe there), it would have been a thicker album easier to digest. Now, although the band has some good ideas and the album will probably be interesting for fans of Massacre, early Death, Obituary, Incantation, Gruesome or Skeletal Remains, it still dwells in mediocrity.
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'Kingdom Of Evil' continues in the same path. The vocals are emphatic and more evil this time. There is a horror/occult atmosphere all around. The Mediterraneans are generally good in producing such atmospheric twists is extreme metal. The homonymoys 'Don't Break the Circle' choses doom as the ingredient to show sickness. The riffs are more twisted and encephalic. The bass is supporting the riffs brilliantly keeping it simple, but to the point. I may liked the song if it had a little less repetition in the riffs. The lead melodies are nice, and the themes may have a nice development at times, but don't justify the more than 8 minutes length of the song. 'The Impaler' is a doom/death song whose vocals at slower parts remind me of Mortuary Drape, while in the mid tempo changes the riff is not that interesting. It sounds to me that they don't get the right groove. The Incantation riff around the 5th minute is nice. However, the song is again tiringly long.
'I'm The Shadow (We Are The Shadow)', 'Massacre In The Gates Of Fire', 'Sword Of Ignorance', 'Death To False King', 'Destroyer', And 'Behind The Sacrifice' continue more or less in the same path of old school death metal mixed with doom elements. I really liked a lot the choir in 'Death To False King'. 'Destroyer' also features some very nice guitar work. 'Behind The Sacrifice', the closing song of the album is my favorite. The guitar layers bring on the doom and death awaits behind the door! The bass did an excellent work here again. The atmosphere is of pure magic and even showed black metal influences. Another very long song, but this one is really inspired.
Generally, the band tries to show an occult face and to put forward the horror aesthetics of the old school death metal scene. Spain used to have an excellent scene in the 90s and Bloody Brotherhood surely draw influence from that scene. However their songs here are most of times lengthy and repetitive in a way it doesn't help songwriting much. Although there are some good riffs with an aura that dwells within the standards of the genre and chugging riffs that take the listener way back in time, I feel that at times they lack fluency in the performance or they are repetitive and thus become unconvincing. The doom style is their peak for sure!
Long tracks don't allow them to avoid repeating themselves and although this can be an asset for doom at times it sounded to me tiring. Should it be around 35 minutes long and with some tighter performance and maybe a better production (especially in the drums) that would brighten/clear a bit the instruments (of course keeping the old school vibe there), it would have been a thicker album easier to digest. Now, although the band has some good ideas and the album will probably be interesting for fans of Massacre, early Death, Obituary, Incantation, Gruesome or Skeletal Remains, it still dwells in mediocrity.
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1. Intro
2. Into The Darkness
3. Kingdom Of Evil
4. Don't Break The Circle
5. The Impaler
6. I'm The Shadow (We Are The Shadow)
7. Massacre In The Gates Of Fire
8. Sword Of Ignorance
9. Death To False King
10. Destroyer
11. Behind The Sacrifice
12. Outro
2. Into The Darkness
3. Kingdom Of Evil
4. Don't Break The Circle
5. The Impaler
6. I'm The Shadow (We Are The Shadow)
7. Massacre In The Gates Of Fire
8. Sword Of Ignorance
9. Death To False King
10. Destroyer
11. Behind The Sacrifice
12. Outro
