BLOOD MOUNTAIN

Due to all the praise this album was getting on PA back in 2006, I bought it. Let me tell you something...it was the *last* time I ever bought any music without at least hearing some of it first. This was a (almost) complete waste of my money. After all the praise Crack The Skye was getting I listened to some of it on YouTube...didn't like anything I heard. This album is about 95% metal and 5% prog...and it's not even original metal! The first few times I listened to it I thought: "This part sounds like 80s Metallica...this part sounds like 80s Slayer...this part sounds like 80s Maiden..." Etc. Basically the whole album sounds like what those three bands were doing in the '80s, mixed with some Megadeth and Anthrax and maybe a hint of Sepultura. "Colony Of Birchmen" even sounds like '80s Ozzy sometimes.

The only song I ever really liked and the only reason I still have the damn CD is the last song "Pendulous Skin". Totally different to the rest of the album, this one actually sounds almost like Southern rock. The song is only about 5 minutes but the whole track is about 22 minutes....mostly silence, with some talking at the very end. That trick was used alot in the '90s: have the last song on the CD be about 20 minutes but only the first 3-5 minutes is an actual song, and then a whole lotta silence and....a *bonus* song or some talking or something for the last 2 minutes or so. I didn't know bands still did that kinda thing in the iPod Age. Anyway, it's a good song, I wish the whole album sounded like it! Mars Volta keyboardist Ikey Owens plays organ on the song. Also, that chick from Mars Volta 'sings' on "Siberian Divide". The only other song that even slightly catches my attention is the instrumental "Bladecatcher", mainly for the oddball sound effects.

Listening to this album just makes me miss what Metallica, Slayer and Iron Maiden were doing in the 1980s. 1.5 stars rounded up to 2.