BLOODSOAKED - The Death of Hope CD
Comatose Music
Genre: Death Metal
Rating: 4/5
For those of you who don't know, yeah there might be a few, BLOODSOAKED is the one man Death Metal act from North Carolina, that's here in the states by the way. That one man is Peter Hasslebrack and although he's not alone on the one man Death Metal act front (there's the guy from Holland in GORE OBSESSED whose pretty sick in his own right and my posts of his releases seem to be very popular with SFM666 readers) he has a worldwide following that stretches to Europe and the dark regions of South America. Strangely enough as the saying goes the messiah is never worshipped in his own home. Since I live in the same area as Peter I can tell you that I know this as fact. There's or was a Facebook page dedicated to Peter titled 'Hey BLOODSOAKED Guy Stop Flying My Car'. It would seem that not only is Peter a musical machine (he is also called a "killing machine") but is also very astute at advertising his shows. Maybe notorious is a better word for it since at one local club if your car was in the parking lot at a show then upon leaving you would find a BLOODSOAKED show handbill placed underneath your windshield wiper. Of course you didn't even need to be at the club for long to mysteriously find one placed on your vehicle. You could've just stopped by the club to drop something off and upon exiting a minute later there would be a BLOODSOAKED show handbill on your vehicle. I've heard that even pizza delivery guys find em on their windshields. Of course the Facebook page was created to be just a fun excursion although I did post that while at the airport I did see a BLOODSOAKED show handbill affixed to the windshield of a 707. A total fabrication on my part but I seriously would not put it passed Peter to do it if he had the opportunity.
Aside from all of that the mainstay here is about his music. (wow there's a novel idea) I first learned about BLOODSOAKED while at a past North Carolina Death Fest show. While some of my friends were not so impressed with a one man Death Metal act on stage that night blasting away on guitar while a machine provided the rhythm section I on the other hand was intrigued. I picked up his debut CD Brutally Butchered, released in 2007 also on Comatose Music, and thought it was pretty decent even though the programmed rhythms were a little too obvious. (Note to back trackers you won't find that review in the SFM666 archives since it was posted on the old site) BLOODSOAKED second full length release (I never got the Demand for Revenge EP from 2008) was Sadistic Deeds Grotesque Memories in 2009, also Comatose Music, and once again it was a decent release with an obvious progression with the programming back up. Now it's time for this one here and I've gotta say that this is BLOODSOAKED's best release by far. Obviously the 'third time's the charm' motive has to be employed here. There's three noticeable progressions on The Death of Hope which pushes it past the decent level.
First off is that Peter has changed or at least toned down his vocals a bit to a more early DM burned throat style instead of the cliche cavernous growl. Although he still throws in a growl here and there for effect but overall the cookie monster was left outside of the studio doors. For listeners it's the difference between being up front in your face brutality and underlying brutality. The former repels you while the latter intrigues you into really wanting to get into the music deeper. Secondly, even though I've read that Peter is now trying to make BLOODSOAKED into a full fledged band, the backing programming of the drums sounds a whole helluva lot better on here. If you didn't already know this was just a one man band then you would think otherwise. Finally the songs on here are simply damm good since Peter is not trying to shove technical aspects, brutality or old school familiar themes, as a take it or leave it sound, at the listener but instead intertwines them all. Yes I'm sure some snob will call this cosmopolitan Death Metal as they kick back with their over-priced wine and latest progressive metal fart band quietly playing on their Ipod. Fuck those types to begin with because they never looked at anything prior to DEATH's Symbolic release as being extraordinary. Peter has taken the best aspects of early USDM and just repeated them to people who still enjoy it. Also the influences are less defined as on prior releases. Sure I can hear some early OBITUARY and DEATH in the riffs as well as drumming, coincidentally James Murphy who has played for those two legendary acts adds a solo on here, but the key word here is 'early'. I'll put it to you like this. Would you rather hear some competent Death Metal with groove, aggressive riffs with weight to em and real vocals or would rather hear something by a bunch of kids with ADD. I'll take this and besides Peter looks like Stone Cold Steve Austin's brother (ok it could be Goldberg's brother as well) whose into Extreme Metal.
Label: http://www.comatosemusic.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bloodsoakedband
Bandcamp: http://bloodsoaked.bandcamp.com/
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