Band: STAINED BLOOD
Country: Spain
Title: Nyctosphere
Label: Blood Fire Death
Year: 2019
Style: Melodic Black Death Metal
Review:
Ok, I was expecting some sort of old-school Death Metal from this release after seeing its front cover, then after finding their Metal Archives page I was expecting some Melodic Death mixed with Deathcore, but here I am after three spins of this third album of theirs, when I can describe their music as Melodic Black Metal with serious Melodic Death Metal influences at least on some tracks, but the first seems to be the right label for what the band plays at the moment. This new album is made of 6 tracks clocking almost 50 minutes of playing time; mostly fast paced, technical, with intricate and well-structured compositions, Stained Blood's music will appeal to a large portion of Extreme Metal fans, and the excellent production this album is presented with does justice to the obvious hard work they put in creating it. Not sure if their old fans will appreciate their orientation at the moment, but they will surely gain new ones, more of them for sure. It's a real breath of fresh air listening how well the two guitarists complement each other blending fast, melodic, brutal, atmospheric and complex rhythms, leads and solos, but also the upfront, incisive and classy sounding bass lines and the frantic drumming have to be mentioned in this excellent overall result; the vocals, as the spearhead of any band, are throat-scratching, raspy, almost growling at times shrieks, heavily presented throughout the material leaving no space for boredom. A very, very good album, sincerely recommended!
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 9/10