Unholy Cross

Prior to the turn of the decade, the ever-shifting musical direction of Swedish power metal newcomers (with some old comers along for the ride) Bloodbound could have been chalked up to a combination of timing and uncontrolled lineup changes. Urban Breed's self-imposed career of vocal mercenary led him on a Trail Of Murder of sorts (pun intended), leaving the Olsson brothers and company to pick up the pieces yet again, which thankfully resulted in turning back the clock a couple years and jettisoning the current yet derivative and mechanically progressive character that made Tabula Rasa an inferior product. The entry of vocalist Patrik Johansson of the younger outfit Dawn Of Silence has allowed a revisiting of territory somewhat along similar lines to that of Book Of The Dead, though their new helmsman's pipes are not quite as gravely as Bormann's and tend just a tiny bit closer to Breed's, though dubbing him a combination of both former vocalists of this outfit would be a good way to describe his well rounded presentation.

Thus is presented Unholy Cross, a powerful return to form that can be categorized as both stylistically safe yet also qualitatively exhilarating. With the throwing off of the futurist trappings of the recent past, the fire has been rekindled and with it a streamlined, right for the jugular approach to metal pours over every second of this entire album. In more of an old school nod that is somewhat similar to the band's debut, Bloodbound opts to go for a middle paced bludgeoning to kick things off, culminating in three powerhouse sing-along anthems in "Moria", "Drop The Bomb" and the somewhat slower but still killer "The Ones We Left Behind". While largely simple in presentation and leaning towards a celebratory mood similar to Hammerfall's Renegade and Primal Fear's Devil's Ground, there is plenty of heavy-ended goodness and fancy lead guitar detailing to rival the previous album while keeping things in a more traditional light.

Once the highly memorable yet mid-paced exposition of this album concludes, the picture becomes a bit more frenzied and moves in the direction of sounding more like this band's own second LP, or the dark and speedy Edguy magnum opus Mandrake for a more visible comparison. It's not difficult to see the parallels right when things land in speed heaven on "Reflections Of Evil", which follows the same sort of triumphant and high octane chorus formula with a darker character that typified turn of the millennium Edguy and Helloween, and the formula continues to hold true on a number of similar songs such as more technically oriented mix of rhythmic chugging and keyboard/guitar noodling "The Dark Side Of Life" and the older Hammerfall sounding speeder "Message From Hell". Truth be told, apart from the band's token ballad "Brothers Of War", which sees this band leaning a bit into the realm of soft, keyboard tinged Axel Rudi Pell territory, this entire album could easily be mistaken for a number of better efforts out of Gus G during his early runs with Firewind and Dream Evil, with perhaps the latter's Dragonslayer being the best overall comparison.

While Bloodbound may end up being tagged as the most stylistically inconsistent/confused power metal act to ever come out of Sweden, they have this uncanny ability of bouncing back in spite of constant lineup shifts among the most substantial parts of their respective whole, to speak nothing for the fairly frequent shifts in record label loyalties. Unholy Cross could be likewise pegged as a return to form of sorts for a band that still seems to be struggling with what exactly that form happens to be. Nevertheless, the musical results are a solid, substantial collection of fun and catchy songs that manage to be over-the-top technical and hard hitting without degenerating into mindless showboating or sounding like a bunch of math problems being put to a melody. This is the sort of organic stuff that doesn't require a trip to Whole Foods in order to enjoy, and has an old fashioned charm to it without needing to keep your elbows off the table.