Released 15/07/2020

Whilst we are of course a UK thrash focussed site, we listen and enjoy thrash from all over the world, along with North America, Germany has a strong thrash heritage, with the Teutonic monsters of Kreator, Sodom, Destruction & Tankard through to modern thrashers like Reactory & Dust Bolt and many more rising from the local underground.

Bloodvale are one such band, forming back in 2010 in Bünde and released their first album ‘Lobotomy’ on Wednesday.

So here’s our first impressions of their album, we’ve only had it 24 hours so this will be a fairly light touch review!

Opening Track ‘Force Of Will’ kicks off with slow melodic intro, that has a little feel of Metallica’s ‘Unforgiven’  before launching in to a riff laden thrasher, a great opening track that gets the head moving. The album continues in the vein with ‘Masquerade’ ‘Awake But Sleeping’ ‘The Christ That Failed’ ‘Inhumankind’  and title track ‘Lobotomy’ all following suit,  all these tracks are all out thrashers, full of great time shifts, pace variations,  breakdowns and some awesome technical guitar work.  ‘Who’s Your God’ starts off a bit death metal, but the breakdown slows everything down before launching into a blistering charger  getting  you set up for the final track.  ‘Obey The Nightmare’ leads with another melodic intro that these guys do so well, really building up for the suspense for when the drums and the heavy riffs step up, this feels a little slower than some of the others and really makes me want to prowl the pit!

Overall an enjoyable heavy, thrashy but subtlety melodic and technical offering that makes me want to go and see these guys live, which is what a good album should do!

Go and check it out https://Bloodvale.bandcamp.com

Thanks to Carl & Robbie at ‘The Thrash Metal Album Of The Fortnight Club’ for introducing us to Bloodvale and Henning & MP from the band will hopefully join us for a German Thrash Special YouTube Show in a few weeks’ time!