Blut

Atrocity's unfamous "Blut" has been doomed by many of their old and new fans because of its unsual multifacetic nature. It is clear that it differs heavily from the first two records, which are technical death metal albums, and this is one of the main reasons why it gets all the hate.

Please do not let anyone convince you this is a bad record based on the premise that '"does not it include" death metal. This is far away from the truth. "Blut" is probably the most diverse death metal album I know. Yes, death metal, since it contains enough music that lies within this musical style, which they mix with great variety of other approches.

Let's talk about the music itself. Most of the insanely skilled musicians from the previous albums are present here, so it's obvious that a great amount of technique is displayed on this record. You can listen to crushing, varied, yet very melodic riffs all over the whole hour this albums lasts. If that wasn't enough, the bass plays a very important role. The groove will make most of the songs stick to your head and Michael Schwarz's drumming is outstanding as always. The reason why I even prefer this album over the first two is that you find most of the elements from "Hallucinations" and "Todessehnsucht" as well as an amalgam of other elements like folk, thrash, gothic and classic heavy metal. For God's sake, even the song "Miss Directed" sounds like a precursor of what later was labled as "nu metal". You may be wondering by now if the mix is actually pleasent and fitting, so you can't stop worrying because Atrocity made it happen.

Ok, now it's time to analyze what most people complain about this album, the vocals. It's safe to say that Krull's performance seems even unrecognizable on "Blut" but the reason this is the case, is that the approach is more complex, that's why he utilizes all the facets of his voice. Most of the time it's kind of a "barking" growl, but a lot of clean vocals can be heard as well, even some female vocals. A perfect example of this is the folk song "Calling the Rain". The vocals in general have also the task to fit with the lyrical concept of the album, which deals with gothic, vampiric and existential themes. So, if you ask me, the vocals are the right ones for what the band wanted to display (even if they play B.L.U.T. live with the classic growl that Alex does on the newer records).

To conlude, if you're looking for a different approach of extreme metal and have an open mind, you should definetly give a chance to Atrocity's Blut, and can actuallly contribute to its well deserved praised that it sadly never gets because of the conservative nature of many metalheads.