Bloodbeast: Bloodlust (2012)

Solid

Review by Patrick, proprietor of Beards, Etc.

Bloodbeast are a death metal band from South Africa. They just formed last year, and this spring they released their debut album Bloodlust.

I've noticed that a common problem for metal outfits from out-of-the-way countries is a tendency to stick to the clearly defined standard practices of their chosen sub-genre. I have my theories about why exactly that is, but that's a discussion best left for another time. The important thing is that it's a trait Bloodbeast shares for the most part. In this case, they've largely (though not exclusively) stuck to the Swedish variety of death metal. This is not an inherently bad thing, but it does stick them in bit of a box. There are exceptions to this normalcy (like the bizarre, halting tempos on "Merciless"), but the bulk of the record sounds pretty familiar.


Familiar or not, these guys are pretty good at what they do. Their production is good. The rhythm guitar and bass crunch and smash their way through each track with plenty of meat. They do fall into an occasional breakdown, but it's never overly distracting. The drumming does a fine job of keeping things moving, and the vocals are perfectly solid death metal fare that sound great at times and are probably the strongest all-around feature of their sound. The lead guitar work, provided by the vocalist, does some peculiar (and not always good) things at times and is the aspect most responsible for differentiating the band from a crowd of similar sounding acts.

Overall, this is a good, solid death metal record. At the end of the day, though, it doesn't really do much other than serve as an above-average example of fairly standard death metal.

The Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Bloodbeast on Bandcamp (free download)