The Bloodshed Summoning

I had never heard Sacred Steel before this and I must say I was pleasantly surprized. I didn't hold much hope for this CD for the simple fact that so many bands seem to be riding the "steel" bandwagon so to speak. I was in fear that this band was yet another band of this particular genre with nothing new to offer. Even though this band is described as epic power metal, I feel there is so much more than that here but this band is most definitely epic. Having 8 full-length releases and a handful of others under their belt, I will have to go back and check out the back catalogue to see how the band has progressed to the awesome sound that is on "The Bloodshed Summoning".

Along with being considered power metal, you can tell a really heavy thrash influence as well. early on in this CD I felt a really cool vibe of Sodom/Sabbat going on. The riffing is pretty classic and in parts is pretty reminiscent of Iron Maiden. On top of that, lovers of the band Nevermore will most definitely dig this album. Nothing too simplistic but yet not too complex or technical either. A lot of thought went into the riffs and solos here. A nice polished sound where necessary while in other areas a nice effective dirty, gritty sound. A really well placed use of musical ability where the guitars are concerned. I really liked the drumming on this CD. For some reason it reminded me of the work on Iced Earth's "Night of the Storm Rider". This guy could rate right up there with Gene Hoglan, Paul Bostaph, Dave Lombardo and other drummers of the like. Yes, he's that good. Absolute precision 100% of the time throughout the album. He makes it seem so effortless which adds a certain intensity to the CD. The vocalist does an excellent job putting the different vocal patterns exactly where they need to go. He doesn't use just one type of vocal throughout the album. He goes all the way from a Sabbat/Sanctuary/Nevermore type vocal in some parts to an almost Sodom sounding vocal in other parts. A really nice range going on in these tunes and it adds a nice little touch of originality which is another plus for this band. I may be wrong but as far as the lyrical content goes, this seems to be a concept album. But most definitely it has a really dark theme and the presentation of this material is near flawless. For me the highlights of this cd were "No God/No Religion", "The Bloodshed Summoning", "Crypts of the Fallen" and "Doomed to Eternal Hell ".

If you're already a fan of Sacred Steel then you will most definitely want to get this cd as well. If you have never heard this band before then this would be a really nice introduction to a band who should be at the forefront, if not the lead, of their respective genre.

Sacred Steel often catches some flack for having, for lack of a better description, a unique sounding vocalist. Not so much distinctive for any stylistic innovation, but more for an overtly nasally and sometimes quite sloppy delivery, culminating in the metal vocal equivalent of a b-grade movie homage with an inexperienced director. The attention that is paid to the vocals is largely an inevitable consequence of a very conservative, by the book approach to speed/power metal that makes early Hammerfall seem innovative by comparison, though Gerrit Mutz's usually high end howl is quite imposing in and of itself, though not necessarily in the desired way. It has a theatrical quality to it that rivals the pomp of Messiah Marcolin, though the actual quality and mode it manifests as bears a strong resemblance to Warrel Dane during his Sanctuary days. But with the release of this relatively obscure German outfit's latest opus "The Bloodshed Summoning", things take a decidedly modern turn.

The character of this rather cliche polemic against Pentecostal fanaticism has an extreme metal flavor to it, not all that dissimilar to the earlier output of Nevermore, and Mutz's vocals have all but channeled the last few albums put out by said American progressive/groove mainstays, as if Warrel Dane's chain-smoking induced snarls have been communicated through a contagious virus to Gerrit's pipes. This all occurs amid the usual backdrop of Manowar meets Grave Digger riffs and beats that very seldom break out of said box, which has defined the band's sound since its inception. In all honestly, there is not much to separate this from the equally predictable yet slightly more interesting songwriting that dominated "Hammer Of Destruction", and here Mutz's frequent references to late 80s death/thrash grunts and downplay of his 2nd rate Geoff Tate attempts prove to be the strongest selling point.

This isn't an outright exercise in mediocrity, but the premise of the sound heard on here does tend to wear thin as the songs progress, culminating in an album that starts out fairly impressive and leaves wanting. The lone song on here that seems worthy of the epic power metal title is the predictable yet slightly multifaceted "Journey To Purgatory", which is surrounded by some reasonably impressive acoustic guitar work in "Join The Congregation" and "Doomed To Eternal Hell", but largely listens like an extended version of the band's tight-knit speed metal orthodoxy. Things get a bit more aggressive and ferocious with the likes of "Storm Of Fire 1916", "Under The Banner Of Blasphemy" and "Perversions Of The Scriptures", but doesn't really go beyond a slightly meaner and heavier of what usually comes out of the Grave Digger formula of late.

The comic book oriented album art of this mixed bag is probably its chief indicator of its nature, appearing like an exaggerated pulp story with a complete disregard for subtlety. It tends to taste good on the way down and leave the consumer with an empty feeling after a while, not all that different from fast food really. The charisma and draw this band's contemporaries in Iron Savior and Primal Fear offer a less mundane, less repetitive alternative to this, and will tend to agree more with power metal listeners. This band seems to want to be a thrash metal outfit or maybe something along the lines of recent Exciter output here, but can't seem to commit themselves to the task, thus leaving an album that is about as interesting as any number of more stripped down offerings. This is best demonstrated by the cover of Misfit tune "Dig Up Her Bones", which mirrors this album's simplicity and accommodates Mutz's very limited clean vocal comfort range quite well. This album is probably worth hearing once for fans of the band, but far from a real breakout effort for a band that has largely been unable to really deliver the goods.

Later submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on April 3, 2013.

Crazy how that time thing flies! I can recall picking up Sacred Steel's 1997 debut Reborn in Steel, my first exposure to their brand of brash yet traditional German power/speed metal as if it were yesterday. And yet, here they are already releasing record number eight, adorned with a wonderfully pulp sword & sorcery comic book themed cover which is frankly a good match for the nostalgia they convey through their lyrical themes of black magic, fantasy warfare and other admittedly staple fare for the genre. However, it should be said that the real triumph of this latest opus is not that it's some long-belated masterwork, but probably the first album in the Germans' career upon which I could tolerate the vocalist, Gerrit P. Mutz, whose frivolous screaming proved a huge obstacle that I simply couldn't overcome...

I get what the guy was always going for, a high pitched, melodic squeal in the vein of greats like Rage, Mania, and Scanner from back in the 80s, but it simply never worked for me. Here on The Bloodshed Summoning, he maintains a lot of his charisma, but focuses it into a darker and more extreme metal performance with lots of growls and vicious lower-end bites, and the end result is an album far easier to stomach while at the same time more tangibly aggressive. After all, the guy's got a lot of experience in a few of his other, doom-oriented projects to bring some gravity and anger to his inflection, so why not bring it over to the mainstay? He doesn't exactly abandon his higher notes completely here, but even the pinched, nasal melodies exhibit a large degree of control. Ultimately, the man is an asset on this record, rather than a liability, which is very much needed, since the riff set and songwriting here isn't among the best in their body of work, but rather a stopgap between bands like Judas Priest, Primal Fear and Twisted Tower Dire. Ironic, in a way, because their last full-length, 2009's Carnage Victory was one I had an opposite reaction towards: insanely good music, but the vocals soiled my experience.

That quip aside, The Bloodshed Summoning is still a reasonably exciting experience if just to hear this long desired merger of savage, classic riffing progressions and Mutz' dirty ass howls and snarls. This is far from a flaky, overproduced flower metal album saturated with keys and anal retentive Stratovarius songwriting. The guitars have some depth and murkiness to the muscular rhythm tone, and the harder hitting, chugged rhythm guitars occasionally hinge on more of a thrash/speed structure. The lack of fairy-like screaming and the brute force of the riffing sequences definitely recalls the angrier Germans like Grave Digger, Paragon, or the heavier side of Iron Savior, U.D.O. and Running Wild more than tripe like Freedom Call and Sonata Arctica, with a healthy serving of 80s US cult classics like Liege Lord's Master Control and a bit of bitter doom. The leads do often feel as if they've been shoveled below the crunching largesse of the rhythm riffs, but ultimately there's enough melody carried over through the implementation of cleaner axe tones (as in "No God/No Religion"), and the bass guitar and drums are like a goddamn phalanx marching off to war, so steady and abusive that they really add some force to a track like "Under the Banner of Blasphemy".

So the added cover of "Dig Up Her Bones" isn't well enough rendered that I'd consider it a selling point, simply because the vocals don't have much character there, but other than that you've got a solid effort for these veterans, and without any doubt this darker Mutz is a marked improvement that I hope will persist through their future output. There's enough variation between dirty power metal stormers and slower, more atmospheric numbers to support the swollen track list (15, including the cover and two brief instrumentals), and it's honestly one of the better Sacred Steel works I've heard to date.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com