Burial Ground

As the Metal Archives puts it, Loudblast, “the first notable death metal band from France”, have undergone too many hiatuses and lineup changes to remain faithful to their original sound. The heavy thrash sound with speeding guitars and drums has been instead replaced with grooves and brooding atmosphere in their new album, Burial Ground. The thrash influences in Loudblast circa-2014 are not as readily apparent as they were in 1985, but after several stylistic changes in 2011 and 2004, it’s good to see the band release an affirming album that proves that they still have some ingenuity and songwriting prowess to showcase.

Almost instantly one of the first things you notice is how prevalent the structures of the songs seem to be. Most songs start with a dark and ominous death metal passage and then slowly transition to thrashier end of the spectrum to encapsulate the solos and faster riffing. While it’s a good equation for success in moderation, in the end it causes the album to seem somewhat formulaic. There are the occasional exceptions like “Ascending Straight in Circles” and album closer ,”The Path”, but these tracks also become some of the stronger ones of the album due to their variance in structure.

The thrash portions are usually impeccable. The heavier grooves and death segments have varying outputs. “The Void”, for instance has the most demanding and brutal first few minutes of any song on this album, but, in contrast, “Abstract God” seems monotonous until its solo kicks in due to overall lack of activity at times. For a band that’s labeled as “melodic death metal/thrash”, you’ll soon start to realize that it’s rare that the two styles will ever overlap. Instead, Loudblast prefers to keep its thrash and death separate, even within a single track. My personal favorite, “From Dried Bones”, gets closest to intertwining the two styles with a heavy and melodic riff and some great vocals overlayed after a suspenseful and militaristic opening.

Death and Massacra fans should take note, for this is a very competent release from the French metallers. However, the formulaic approach makes it very hard to listen to more than a few tracks at a time without feeling underwhelmed by the overall songwriting. The dark sound is superbly produced and delivered, but without equally superb songwriting it becomes futile ultimately. Loudblast fans will undoubtedly find something to enjoy in this album, as will old-school death metal fans, but I don’t see it as Loudblast’s strongest nor most powerful album.

Written for The Metal Observer