BLOODBOUND – Book Of The Dead

“Book of the Dead”, “Sign of The Devil”, “Lord of Battle” … these track titles may tell you a lot about the whole record. In essence: You might expect no surprise at all here. On one side, “YES,” on the other NOOOOOOT! There are indeed some enlightening moments on this long player, which is the follow-up to 2005’s Nosferatu. Well, first of — there is something in the voice of lead singer Michael Bormann (known for his work with Bonfire and Jaded Heart) that makes you wanna switch off the CD-player on the first run. But, please – as indicated before – best to not have a quick trial on this one. Give this silverplate a second chance and you will find Bormann’s voice suiting your eardrums well. He’s not a newbie to the scene, but also isn’t (at least at the moment) a standout frontman like Christian Palin, Tom Englund, or Jorn Lande. But, running in the midst of the field is a lot better than trailing the pack by far.

Another pleasant discovery are the melodies composed for this long player. Guitareros Thomas and Henrik Olsson did a solid job here. The ballad “Black Heart” is the standout track on Book Of The Dead. Also the pace of the songs switches smoothly from fast to slow and back.

The But(t)

For starters is the chorus on the strong opener “Sign Of The Devil”. It sounds like hommage to Swedish Power Metal output Dream Evil. Might be the fact that Bloodbound also stem from the Northern shores of Europe. And to be honest, this isn’t really a negative aspect, but the fact that the chorus on this one, as on almost every song, is marked by an artificial-sounding impression of multiple voices. It sounds a bit cranky and is simply wasted on “Blade Shadows” for one and a half minutes; absolutely non-catchy “Ohhohhhohhh”. “Book Of The Dead” sounds exactly like a copy of Dream Evil’s “Book Of Heavy Metal”. And, to further ship these dark waters, the lyrics and some of the songwriting could clearly take a boost. “Take my hand and I’ll guide you to hell, show you evil, you’re under my spell” (on “Book Of The Dead”) , or “How can you learn how to live once again, spread your wings you can fly like an eagle so high, fly away or you turn to stone” (on “Turn To Stone”). Further counting the mediocre arrangements that sound so familiar might culminate into a serious yelling at the stereo: “Come on you can do better than that!”

To Draw The Line

Taking the risk of being seriously offended (look at the scores this album received on other sites): All in all a mediocre follow-up record by Bloodbound.

A Bit Of History

In the summer of 2004 the two long-time friends Tomas Olsson and Fredrik Bergh decided to go back to their musical roots and start a Metal band. They teamed up with Urban Breed and Oskar Belin to form Bloodbound. In 2005 they started the recordings for their debut album Nosferatu, which was released in early 2006, and became a big success with top reviews around the world. Straight after the recordings Oskar Belin left the band because he didn’t have the time to go on tour and play live, Pelle Åkerlind (Morgana Lefay) was added to the lineup to replace him. The album took them on tour playing gigs with bands like Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquillity, Evergrey, Pretty Maids, and Sabaton, to name a few. The success of the album also gave them a license deal with Rock Machine Records, Brazil and Mystic Empire, Russia later that year. Having completed the tour lead singer Urban Breed waived goodbye …