Review Summary: A confidence display of classic metal
Featuring musicians affiliated with Visigoth among others, Blood Star’s first proper album is thirty-two minutes of no-nonsense heavy metal. The group’s upbeat yet grandiose style isn’t too far off from their ’other band’ and Madeline Smith’s commanding melodicism feels comparable to Unleash the Archers. An emphasis on snappy structures and take-charge playing also reminds one of groups like TOWER and Midnight Dice.
True to its premise, the songs on First Sighting are driven by domineering bass thumps, muscular drumming, sweeping guitars, and an abundance of anthemic choruses. The opening “All for Nothing” doesn’t waste any time with its rousing immediacy while “Fearless Priestess” is pulled straight from the Dio playbook with its mid-tempo trot and the album’s most infectious hooks. “No One Wins” and the closing “Wait to Die” also stand out for their rough-and-tumble riff sets, the latter putting in especially furious drums and theatrical guitars.
But even a decidedly straightforward effort like this still finds ways to tinker with the formula. It’s admittedly jarring to hear the deeper vocals of guitarist Jamison Palmer take over on ”The Observers” but it ultimately comes through with another sturdy structure. The two-minute acoustic meandering on “Dawn Phenomenon” makes for another interesting outlier, serving as a midway break that leads into the triumphant “Cold Moon” quite nicely. One can imagine elements like these getting played up more with further development.
Overall, Blood Star’s First Sighting is a confident display of classic metal. The musicianship strikes the right balance of channeling old school aspirations with enough modern sensibilities to keep from feeling too derivative. It’s also great to see such high priority placed on memorable songwriting with its compact runtime given substance thanks to its striking choruses and varied pacing. It’s a simple formula with a very successful execution that invites a whole lot of replay value.
