Review Summary: Holy crap! I just got whiplash!
Midnight Murder Mania, the first Frightmare album, was excellent, but 2006 saw the band back with
Bringing Back The Bloodshed, which, if I’m honest, makes the previous effort look like a Jason Vorhees dressed up in a tutu. It’s the best thrash album in some time and easily the best record that Razorback Records have put out to date. You can expect breakneck thrash with a strong crossover influence, topped off with some of the main aspects of grind and punk. Sounds both interesting and exciting, huh?
It has been apparent from the release of the first album that Frightmare have a knack for crafting catchy riffs and excellent melodies. Frightmare are a band that are completely focused on cramming as many fantastic melodies as possible into every track whilst never, ever overdoing it. Each track is an onslaught of breakneck drumming and whiplash-causing riffs, whilst still retaining the melodies. The ‘onslaught’ approach never fails, whether it’s on the clear thrash tracks like
By Sword, By Pick, By Axe, Bye Bye, (which resembles Megadeth’s
Symphony Of Destruction in some parts) or on tracks where there is a clear punk reference, such as the intro to
Barbecutioner. The solos stand out from the onslaught that surrounds them, bringing the cuts on this album to a new level and highlighting bandleader Neil Smith’s ability to meld intensity and melody into a stunning whole. This is not to say that it sounds like the infamous Gothenburg sound; it may not be as accessible, but, nonetheless,
Bringing Back The Bloodshed stands as an apex for modern thrash metal.
The musicianship of all the members on this release is excellent overall. The bass and guitars have no difficulty keeping pace, doing so with a level of technicality and tightness that is uncommon. However, the musicianship works to reinforce the
appalling songwriting, rather to distract the listener from it. If you decoded the death growls, you’d find that there’s a story behind each track, told with, frankly, poor lyrics.
Is everything ok?
Can we all go home?
No f--king way
Here comes Jason through the window!
I will spare you the pain of showing you more lyrics, but search the lyrics up for
Angela. Dealing out the stories is a wild vocal performance, which is the supremacy of the album. All the tracks are mixed so that they flow superbly, making this an excellent production job. It may take a bit of time to not be annoyed by all the samples, but, even so, they all rarely overstay their welcome. Each track (except the title track) takes inspiration from a horror flick, some of which are well known, whilst others are more obscure. This may make you delve deeper into the world of slasher flicks.
The only real flaw of this album is the poor songwriting, and that won't even bother some people.
Bringing Back The Bloodshed is highly recommended to any fans of grind, thrash, death metal, and horror. In short, this is recommended to metalheads. Check this album out as soon as possible,
Bringing Back The Bloodshed is a modern day masterpiece and well suited to anybody’s metal collection.
