RSS Feed


BLOODLOST
Diary Of Death

El Puerto (2018)
Rating: 7/10

This is the fourth full-length outing from Swiss thrashers Bloodlost, an aggressive bunch that’s been active since 2001 and who, thanks to vocalist / guitarist Francisco Martins (aka Tchico), come fully armoured with a sniping, snarling assault that hints at a Teutonic sensibility mixed with crossover flourishes.

Diary Of Death is packed to the brim of fast-paced attacks and killer hooks that aren’t a million miles away from Brazilian thrash trio Nervosa. Expect explosive segments of hostility and manic aggression coupled with furious drum charges from Nico Fontannaz, who alongside bassist Lionel Fontannaz provides a backdrop and backbone of crushing rhythms and enough meatiness to tear you a new arsehole.

The album comes equipped with a barrage of relatively short and snappy numbers, led by the cut ‘Evil To The Cross’ which showcases an effective video whereby the threesome is cooped up in some blood-lit cave in order to thrash out their volatile rasps and gang chants. This immediately brings to mind the San Francisco Bay Area heyday with bands such as a young and sneering Death Angel with flashes of Slayer, Exodus, Vio-lence etc. chucked in before the trio embarks on a nasty, sickening trudge that laps at Metallica.

It’s really good stuff, a blazing thrash noise that leads us through the maze of tracks such as ‘Need Of Brutality’, ‘Necromancer’, ‘Lord Of Destruction’, ‘Fuck You’ and ‘Zombie Attack’, all of which are delivered through the menacing snarling chops of Martins whose rasps have a sinister yap to them.

Bloodlost rarely veers from its chosen path, so it’s very much destructive metal from its core to its outer edges, although still very much part of that thrash revival. But where so many bands have become generic and fallen by the way side, there is something rather nostalgic and above all antagonistic about this album. The tracks zip by in flavours of Sadus and Vektor yet with less technical abundance as the guitar sound rips and tears. There are also dollops of maturity, as tracks such like ‘The Ghost Of My Way’ provide evidence of variations the band can employ within their trusty barrage.

As with past releases, Bloodlost continue to hammer home relentless, and at times with punky torrents that for the most part are humourless yet straight to the point excursions into familiar yet fearless designs that should win over a great deal of people who have a penchant for fast-paced zips of chaos.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share