Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Bloodbound In The Name Of Metal Company: AFM Release: 2012 Genre: Traditional Reviewer: EC

Doesn't speak to me with any purpose

Bloodbound are apparently making a career out of this metal thing. The band formed in 2006, courted Urban Breed (ex-Tad Morose) and mosh-danced through what is now their sixth entry in the chronicles of dungeons and dragons metal. "In The Name Of Metal" is the second release for the band on Germany's AFM label and apparently another notch in what is sure to become some sort of power metal legacy (for someone).

I really loved the band's first album as well as the group's fifth release ("Unholy Cross" 2011) but maybe it is just too much too soon...and I know I say this a lot but it rings so true for Bloodbound on this new record. Sure it sounds top notch courtesy of the massive production job from guitarist Tomas Olsson. However as the album cover suggests the songwriting is all about heavy metal and the fight for one's choice in musical selection and lifestyle. Look, I am thirty-six years old with a family, a mortgage and a forty-hour week job. I can delve into heavy metal music practically anytime, anywhere and I really don't need an album of testosterone fueled pro-choice on how much metal needs me. I've had a good relationship with the genre for almost twenty years and the two of us are doing well so far. Needless to say the songwriting of album opener "In The Name Of Metal" is all about the rebellious spirit and the need to oppose the opposition and that sort of mentality. We get lines like "My hair is long and I don't give a f#@k". Really? The unity is thick and preachy throughout the opener as well as songs like "Metalheads Unite" (I wish I were kidding).The Swedish act is high on the hog and full of Manowar's fighting spirit which isn't necessarily a bad thing...it just doesn’t speak to me with any purpose.

I do like the bombastic grooves set aside in tracks like "Monstermind" and "When Demons Collide", both strong Dream Evil/Metalium sort of cuts that are backed by up-front rigid bass lines. It is this sort of material that made the band's last offering enjoyable. We get more heavy grooves and gang chants on the powerful "Black Devil" (perhaps album best). The band's "power metal 101" are faulted with "Bonebreaker" and "King Of Fallen Grace", the fast double bass and up-tempo really calling in early Helloween and Gamma Ray. The Jap bonus track is a studio "live" version of old band favorite "Book Of The Dead".