Review: 03.18.2008
BY BLOOD ALONE
Seas of Blood
Jericho Hill/Relapse Records, 2007
author awarded score: 87/100
By Blood Alone is a female fronted prog metal band along the lines of Nightwish, Epica, Within Temptation, The Gathering, Leaves’ Eyes, After Forever, Kamelot and similar acts. Formed in 2004 they sound more professional and more experienced than many of other bands playing this type of music.
Seas of Blood is an eight-tracker CD spanning over exactly 50 minutes of gothic metal with generic themes with tremendous attitude and different approach to this music; they are simply taking a route never travelled before. Seas of Blood simply possess a cinematic quality I have never seen/heard before. The sound is very polished, clean and original, mixing elements of prog rock, gothic, classical music and some pop-rock tunes as well. There are some hard hitting guitars with main riff being trashy but also groovy at times. There are also some very powerful rhythms reminding me of the early 80s where this kind of progressive music was very popular and enjoyable.
The best thing I can say about are the beautiful, powerful and above everything else, sexy vocals of Cruella. Adding to all of this several melancholic piano parts like in my favourite song “Undead Friend”; then you simply have everything a record of this kind has to contain. It’s accompanied by the great production and awesome cover which leads you to a different world, a world of memories, water/seas and an amazing soundscape. If you’re into heavy, melancholic, stormy and dramatic metal with interesting story this record is the right choice for you. The more I listen to Seas of Blood the more I like it.
-Bato-