‘Not to protect, but to extend your own freedom
Let it ring, with a shotgun blast’
Excuse me? Have we heard that somewhere before? There are many ways of showing your inspiration, and borrowing phrasings from Machine Head is apparantly one of them for French thrashers Deer Blood. It’s not the only thing they’ve borrowed, by the way.
Deer Blood have borrowed heavily from a number of the best thrash and groove metal bands. Death Angel, Machine Head, Slayer, Exodus, Exhorder, they’re all in there. There’s a lot of healthy riffing on this, their debut album. Promising in many ways, that’s for sure, although the band lacks its own identity to really make an impact.
What’s worse is the fact that Deer Blood so desperately meeds a proper vocalist. You can easily hear where Alexandre Bourret finds his inspiration (aforementioned bands), but he simply cannot sing. His voice is not only without any kind of charisma, he sings out of key to the point where it makes you cringe. It’s like…don’t try to emulate Phil Anselmo (Scared to the Bone), don’t even try to go there, alright! The track Killing Engine (taken from the EP ‘Killing Engine’) is even worse, it sounds more or less like a out of key Anthony Kiedis trying to do a thrash ballad. Auch, it hurts.
So, yeah, this release does in some ways make promises of fine music to come, but there are certainly things that need to be adjusted along the way.
Tracklist:
1. Bushmaster
2. Devolution
3. Born Strong Live Young Die Hard Born Again
4. Altar of Lies
5. Trapped Inside
6. Open Letter of Rage
7. Means to an End
8. War of the Roses
9. Scared to the Bone
10. Fist of Fury
11. Annihilation
12. Killing Engine
13. Lone Wolf
Playing time: 57 minutes
Release date: 16th of February, 2015
Label: None
Website: www.deerblood.com
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