BLOODY FALLS – Burn the Witch

Finnish act Bloody Falls dabble in groove metal with prominent overtones of thrash metal and melodic death metal to it. Rumbling and aggressive but always with a keen focus on weaving appealing melodies into the mix, this ten-track effort by the Finnish quintet shows potential and hints at good things to come, but it does not pack quite as much punch as it could have.

The main problem here is that many of the songs are interchangeable and that most of them are merely mildly entertaining and only half-way interesting rather than good or noteworthy, which is a damn shame as there is nothing wrong with the musicianship nor the production. There are several crushing breakdowns, bulldozing passages, and face-melting parts to be found here, but as a whole the record simply lacks that something special i.e. something that truly pulls the listener in and keeps you engaged and entertained throughout. Where are those wildly addictive riffs or those hooks that will keep you coming back for more? The vocal arrangements are a bit hit-or-miss too with the spoken words being dreadful, but at least they try to add variety to their otherwise energetic brand of modern metal music. The works of Pissing Razors, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, Devildriver, and Machine Head come to mind now and again, so if groove metal is your thing, then you might want to give this one a shot as it is not devoid of a number of cool ideas. The thing is that “Burn the Witch” will not set the world afire as it sounds too much like something that we have heard a gazillion times before, but I do think the future is looking bright for these guys if they can simply channel all of that energy and focus into something musically captivating. Check the atmospheric closing track “Father of Sin” out if you are curious as to how Bloody Fall sound.