Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The south may be more alluring, but it is the history of the north people that gives our own islands a deeper resonance, a timbre of earthly tone that has shaped the present in narration and its account on the world.
To be enchanted by the tales from that which crosses a different sea is to be expected, to be held with attention, curiosity and awareness, but to be mindful that which gave us our beginnings, stories, fables and sagas which live deep in the D.N.A. and which Tales From The North, of longboats and invaders, of towns and village names that have withstood history and time with just a corruption in the evolution of language adding flavour to those days and people that remain vocal as they whisper from the past.
That vocal is Bloodbound, an oath of memory derived from one of Sweeden’s most enjoyable metal acts, and in their latest opus, the sublimely delivered Tales From The North, the presence of Nordic sagas given a menacing, cohesive 21st Century thematic is one entrenched in soaring vocal and a freedom of expression which captures the truth of dominion and the concept lives of those who lived in the north.
It is with honour intended and privilege delivered, that the listener is escorted through times they have never seen and yet are so familiar they could have witnessed them in full; and as the versatile performances merge, the saga is overtaken by the epic and the sanctifying nature of authority.
Through tracks such as Drink With The Gods, the excellent The Raven’s Cry, Between The Enemy Lines, Land Of Heroes, and Sail Among The Dead, the precious nature of Metal is firmly gripped and deployed as a signal to the people that their souls are covered and their hearts matter in the face of the usual opposition whose command is nefarious at best.
Bloodbound are fighting not just from the front, they attack with all their powers of persuasion and sonic belief, they rapidly fire notes into the crowd and cover all with a sense of illuminating glory and unrelenting assuredness. From above as below, the Tales From The North are shrouded in history, but released in battle as wonderfully naked aggression filled tracks and which contribute greatly to a period of listening which is to be admired.
Bloodbound’s Tales From The North is out now. Ian D. Hall