Bloodkill – Throne of Control
Release Date: 19th January 2021
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Thrash, Metal.
FFO: Megadeth, Slayer, Sepultura, Amen, Kreator.
Review By: Jonathon Hopper
It’s been four years and counting since Mumbai’s Bloodkill released debut single 3B. That’s four years of line-up changes, development and musical expansion that’s seen the five-piece add traditional metal, groove and the occasional slap of funky bass into their melting pot of thrash.
And of course, four more years of demagogues and tyrants – from Trump’s tub-thumping Twitter tantrums to the more subtle but equally polarising posturing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the band’s homeland.
It’s a state of World affairs that provides ample fuel for Bloodkill’s caustic attack. From the epic sweep of intro The Unveiling through the punky angst of Blindead Circus – a three-minute blast of energy that recalls Dead Kennedys and the criminally underrated Amen at their most urgent.
Third track False Face swaggers in with a big, fat bass intro before taking a left turn into something altogether more mysterious and then comes the aforementioned 3B – lovingly re-recorded and re-worked from its earlier incarnation: a towering groove that stomps more into its four-minute running time than lesser bands would fit into a whole album.
Unite and Conquer is a straight forward bounce-off-the-walls-and-then spill-every-fucker-in-the-joint’s-pint-until-they-throw-themselves-head-long-into-the-mosh-pit thrasher before Horrorscope’s suitably eerie intro takes things down a notch before picking things right back up again for For I am the Messiah, which takes things back where we started. A macabre dance of the demagogues with a killer guitar solo that pours scorn on the strongman messiah complex exhibited by many of the overgrown man-babies currently ruining the World.
All that’s left is for closer title track Throne of Control to play us out with its military style staccato percussion and characterful ‘laughing’ vocal outro and there you have it. Eight songs in a little under 35 minutes, absolutely no filler and with the urgency of someone looking for the loo after downing twelve pints of coffee, Throne of Control (the album) is one compelling and deeply impressive debut.
(4.5 / 5)
