Crime Records

Monday, November 25, 2013

AfterBlood - Of Unsound Minds Review




Band: AfterBlood
Album: Of Unsound Minds
Genre: Death Metal
Label: Self-Released
Country: Athens, Greece
Release Date: November 22, 2013

 Well I've been waiting for "Of Unsound Minds" for a bit now since I first heard "Mission of Aggression" from the Lost in Chaos #5 Female Front Death Metal compilation/digitalzine earlier this year (free cd 24 tracks & pdf mag)  I wound up inquiring as to the release of the full disc and was told sometime in November. Few days ago  found via AfterBlood’s Facebook, it was coming out on November 22nd. So I decided to inquire about doing a review a few days prior, to which I temporarily forgot I asked about. The good ol C.R.S (Can’t Remember S**t) kicking in.  Release day, zero funds in PayPal, that ruled out BandCamp still wasn't on Amazon/Google Play as of yet. I avoid iTunes like the plague as it is. Google Play had it the next morning, I billed it to my carrier, T-Mobile. Thank you carrier billing!  Then a few minutes or so later I get an email back from their vocalist Hel Pyre with the version from BandCamp with the hidden 12th track. So Christmas came early for me... And yet supporting the band as well via the Google Play purchase. The things we do for metal. 

Enough of my rambling, onto the review shall we. There’s  more and more all female, or female-fronted bands surging ahead of the pack. And some even blow the guys out of the water vocally. Just some of the ones I do listen to Demonic Christ, Cerebral Bore, Frantic Amber, Arch Enemy, etc. Now I have AfterBlood added to that list with vocalist Hel Pyre as the frontwoman. So due to the above mentioned compilation, I got hooked on “Mission of Aggression” that features Tom Angelripper from Sodom doing some guest vocals. I checked out the band’s site soon after and, was drawn in even more seeing Waldemar Sorychta was working on it. Pretty much just about anything he works on is pretty killer, Grip Inc, Samael, etc. AfterBlood’s site had two tracks for everyone’s listening pleasure “Mission of Aggression”, “Take”. So onto the full disc, it opens with “Take” which is a pretty killer track. Hel’s vocals at times reminds me of Dana Duffey from Demonic Christ, with a mix of Angela Gossow. But certainly not copying either one of them at all and doing her own thing and I enjoy that.  Couple of songs, she sounds like this demonic child which I like.

The music itself is solid, and clear as all the instruments can be heard in the mix and none of them overpowers the other, or the vocals. The guest vocals all fit great within the songs as Angelripper’s on  “Mission of Aggression” and Antony’s  on “The More I Lie”. I especially enjoy Angelripper’s vocals alongside Hel’s on “Mission..” certainly sounds like a good pairing and very fluid between both.  There’s several tracks on here that stick out to me as favorites, obviously like I mentioned, “Take, “Mission of Aggression”, “Beyond”, “The More I Lie”, and “Psychonic” the Kreator cover “Phobia” is a good cover and a good bonus track to be had. I know there's always some fans that are like or will be “nothing beats the original”. But I've heard some cover songs that beat the originals over the years. . 

The songs do flow smoothly from one to another, a couple of tracks have keyboard parts added for some atmosphere, either in the opening or in the middle of it. As quoted on their site “The perfect blend of aggression and darkness - Waldemar Sorychta” I certainly agree, there’s a lot of good dark parts and certainly some good melody/rhythm sections. The solos, are pretty good too, they fit the structure of the music and are not ridiculously long like some bands go for.  

 The tracklist is as follow:

1. Take
2. Before Time Runs Out
3. Mission of Aggression (feat Tom Angelripper/Sodom)
4. Thoughts of Black
5. Play Dead
6. Beyond (feat. Waldemar Sorychta)
7. Calling the Dead (Seance)
8. Helheim
9. The More I lie (feat Antony Hamalainen/ex-Nightrage)
10. Psychonic
11. Goodnight
12. Phobia (Bonus Track/Kreator)

Overall I find this cd good and solid I highly recommend it and give it an 9 out of 10 stars. Only reason I didn't give it a 10, was it wasn't long enough, well it was, but 42 minutes flew by faster than I realized. Anyways, go buy it and support the band they deserve it. 

Band Contact: 
Hel Pyre’s Official Site: http://helpyre.com/
Not only a killer vocalist.. She’s an amazing digital artist too.. Check out Hel @ Deviant Art 

 You can visit their site for more links, Twitter, Last.fm, etc. 


 YouTube album teaser:




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