Nemesis

(Originally published at valleyofsteel.net)

Bloodred, from Oberstenfeld, Germany, is the creation of Ron Merz, who does all of the writing and performs all the vocals and music. On this debut full-length Nemesis, the drums were provided by Joris Nijenhuis (Atrocity, Leaves' Eyes). It wouldn't be accurate to characterize the album as "Viking metal," as not all of the material here explicitly deals with that particular culture -- but there is plenty of attention paid to battles, folklore, death, etc.

With the instrumental intro track "Fell Voices on the Wind" (the shortest on the album, around two minutes, whereas all the rest are at least five) setting epic twin guitars against a dark and atmospheric background, it instantly feels like melo-death. But as it turns out throughout the remaining seven songs, we veer into quasi-melodic death territory, but that's as far as we go. At no point do we hear any clean vocals, nor anything that might be considered a hummable melody; the guitars -- often sounding like an almost-blackened buzzing -- are definitely closer to Stockholm than Gothenburg in terms of the death metal genre. The vocals throughout Nemesis are a deep growl, sounding like they come from some distance away, but always feeling very savage; the drums are consistently thunderous and relentlessly furious. While some spots -- such as the beginning of "The Hail-Storm" and near the end of "Spirits of the Dead" -- might include a bit of ambient synth sounds to darken the mood, and even some choir-like sounds in the background, as a whole this album is frenzied and fierce, like a wildly whipping whirlwind.

For a slight change of pace, closing track "Im Kalten Licht der Ewigkeit" ("In the Cold Light of Eternity") starts out a little slower, but during most of its running length (the longest found here, around eight minutes) it ends up sounding much more like black metal than those that came before (although in many spots the black or blackened-death influence shines through clearly); the atmosphere here is very cold, definitely a fitting sound for a song with this title.

An excellent place to introduce yourself to this album would be via the single "The Hail-Storm" (for which a video complete with lyrics can be viewed just below). This song is based on a poem of the same name that was adapted and translated by English author and linguist George Borrow, retelling a story that was originally part of the Jómsvíkinga saga. (For those especially interested in literary history, there is some further background about the efforts of Borrow and some of his contemporaries to translate a series of Kjæmpeviser ("Heroic Ballads") from old Danish, in the introduction to this pamphlet that reprinted another of Borrow's translated ballads. For everyone else, feel free to skip those details, and we'll just say that the poem (and song) describes a mythical sea battle between rival clans of Vikings, one of whom sacrifices his son to the goddess Þorgerðr ("Thorgerd"); having thus gained her favor his enemies are then crushed by gigantic hail.