BLOODKILL – Throne Of Control

Seven songs and a wake-up await listeners on the debut album Throne Of Control from Bloodkill. A four piece with Thrash, Classic, and Groove Metal overtones, Bloodkill hail from Mumbai, India and explore themes of duality and political corruption with their songs. 2020 saw the international Metal scene with a large number of high quality albums tackling political and social themes, and 2021-hopefully–continues that laudable trend.

After the appropriately named “The Unveiling”, the minute long mood setting instrumental which opens the album, Bloodkill kick into a higher gear with “Blindead Circus”, rolling on down the sonic highway with a steady beat that escalates a minute and a half in. Singer Anirudh Gollapudi’s style and vocal quality is similar at times to Kreator’s Mille Petrozza–rough and raspy, but the words are elucidated clearly. “False Face” begins with a elaborate line from bassist Yash Wadkar and settles quickly into a full-band performance somewhat similar to the first song, at least until lead guitarist Shubham Khare takes over the last third of the song completely.

Khare displays a range of stylistic chops on Throne Of Control, shifting from shredding riffs to the doomy-crawl which opens the next song “3B” without any hesitation. He delivers great work throughout the album, but the solo on “False Face”, with it’s space-invader runs, manages to be both surprising and engaging.

“3B”, in addition to being Gollapudi’s best performance on the album, showcases each element of Bloodkill especially well. Pacesetter Jay Patil sets the groove with a constantly altering syncopation that allows Wadkar some solo lines to offset Khare’s architectural figures, which are supported throughout by Vishwas Shetty’s tasteful rhythm guitar.

“Unite And Conquer” shines as the most riff-forward tune on the album, a song containing an exceptional mid-point Groove Metal instrumental break launched by yet another soaring solo from Khare, who goes in and out of a twin harmony with Shetty. If not the best song on the album, “Unite And Conquer” might be the one most like likely to hit the 2021 playlist.

“Horrorscope”, however, impresses as the best overall song on the album. It begins with a spooky quiet intro and throat-tearing performance from Gollapudi, who then lets loose with a horrifying scream, signalling the band to pull out all the stops. Machine gun drumming, twin guitars that seem to surround on all sides, all threaded together by a sinuous bass line that weaves effortless in and out despite the ever-changing nature of the song. This song makes clear Bloodkill polished with a high degree of professionalism.

“For I Am The Messiah” takes a sinister tone, a tone deceptively contrasted with a slow-build, mournful solo. Bloodkill makes good use of aural space in their songs, anyone looking for a familiar riff-verse-riff chorus format will not find it on Throne of Control.

Bloodkill save the title song for last. Patil hits a martial snare beat which the band builds upon and takes in several unexpected directions throughout the song, ending an extremely satisfying album from an exciting new band.