A continuation from "Halo of Blood", but the creativity lacking and songs seemed lumped together with no real vibe that makes it a valuable possession in their discography.  With exceptions, they just seem to be tired of making any memorable music.  Each album to me should be a progression from the past.  COB should be making albums that are historic like they used to be.  A spark and a joy to listen to.  Not just riffs that go nowhere, monotonous vocals, symphonic keyboards which to me on here are annoying, but the goal should show more maturely than this one has to offer.  They never were a band that weren't glorified because of their lyrics, they were more like guitars by Alexi mainly that were cutting edge.  I'd say they did put out a bunch of crap albums though, "Blooddrunk" being one of them, but I think this one is if not equal to that one or worse.  There's no real concept to this record, it's just something that wasn't thought out well.  It was mere stagnation.  Like "let's stay stuck, but don't let our fans know.  Let them keep buying our albums."  That might be Alexi's attitude, it just is portrayed in these albums he keeps making with these musicians that are cast in the line-up who care only about their royalties.  That might sound cynical, it's just how I view them making mediocre albums.  If you're a melodic metal band, at least write something that one one has ever thought of.  Sure there's classical music influence on every one of theirs, this one is just ordinary.  You might say "boring" or that it just lacks balls to it.

The tone of the guitars were very thrash metal oriented along with melodic, but the music or compilations weren't striking.  They couldn't hold a good tune and make it sound catchy.  It was like having another attitude like "let's just make a record, throw out some riffs and lump all into one because Bodom fans will like it."  To me, that seemed like Alexi's attitude.  It should be making good music because "we like it", not our fans.  That's kind of why I stopped listening to Opeth.  Another good band gone to hell because Mikael plays what he thinks his fans like to hear, not them.  

Sad to say, with these new albums from COB, I'd conclude that the last 2-3 have me depressed over them.  It just seems like talent wasted away.  I would no longer say Alexi is an iconic guitarist and as for cover songs, forget it!


Rate: 65%.

I've never really followed this band that closely, but here with "Blood Mantra", I'm a firm fan of their music now.  I like the energy of this album, especially the intensity.  The whole album isn't blisteringly fast, they vary it.  What sets this apart from other newer releases is the diversifying that they do.  They also etch deep into creativity modes of songwriting.  A total balls out fury of riffs thrown at you and the vocals deep throat, just not too deep.  It fits with the music.  The message here I think is that "we're gonna strike with a vengeance here!"  These guys lay thick toned axe-fury then some songs are a little toned down with merely a death metal groove to them.  They cover a lot of different avenues here, the most ones to me that stuck out were the groove laden ones.  The fast ferocious tunes I could follow, but they weren't as memorable as the groove ones.  Towards the near ending tracks, it seems that they show some sort of Sepultura type riffing coming from "Chaos AD."  Not sure if that's what their aim was, but the vibe was there and it surely reflected that.

There really aren't too many leads on this album, the focal points were the music and changing things up starting out immense torture then leaving you thinking "hmmm, what was their reason why they let up on that intensity."  I think that they mainly show this because they can prove themselves to be not only a death metal band, but a band that can do more than just annihilate your eardrums.  Sound quality was superb and production equally as good.

When I first heard this a while ago, it didn't strike me as something that I wanted to touch on.  But now listening to it, especially hearing the ending song got me thinking.  My reason said "a definite boon to my collection."

This album is a couple years old now, but it still hits hard and home to death metal fans open to diversity.

Rate: 90%.

When I recently heard this, it didn’t strike me as being that notoriously good.  But the more I heard it, especially with Simone’s vocals, I grew to really like it.  It’s really atmospheric and fillings with synthesizers plus other effects to make it sound more enchanting.  To me, the keys were a bit loud and took over whereas when you could make out what the guitars were playing, it was awesome.  Classic metal lines with leads that were ripping.  The music to the album seemed glorifying and striking.  It was simply breathtaking.  If everything was mixed in properly though, I would’ve given this a better rating.  I just felt that there should be more emphasis on the axes not the keys.  The vocals were mainly clean female voice with some male growls/screams accompanied with it.  That gave the album more diversity.

I thought that Simone’s vocals were not only unique, but they totally fit the music perfectly.  She does wonders with her voice and I think that it should be appreciated in the metal world regarding her talent.  The whole band put forth a huge effort to make this album possible.

Solid production, unique vibe to their operatic sound, gripping guitars, and gods were created when this was made.  Again, just if the guitars could’ve been a little louder so that you can make-out the riffs, this would’ve gotten an even higher score.  But as is, this album is a monument.  Everything to look for in a metal release.  I couldn’t be happier owning this album.  Take a listen and you may hear that as well.

Rate: 90%.

Balls out intensity to put it mildly.  This is extreme death metal, these “conquerors” like Erik Rutan deserves a piece in metal history for not only his music but his work in the scene since 1997 that has proven that this man is a death metal icon.  Here we see a ton of fast-paced guitar/drums with the trio, a few songs on here are moderately paced, but not much.  The music is totally original and catchy.  It keeps you wanting to hear more and more songs each succeeding track.  That was the main intention Erik, et al triumphed in doing.  A little over 40 minutes of sheer brutality.  This one makes your eardrums bleed taking on the form of fury and fire.  Rutan focused more on the songwriting aspect in putting this together. His aim was to make something heavy as well as uncompromising.

The band features aside from Erik, J.J. Hrubovcak on bass and Chason Westmoreland on drums.  There were some tragedy that occurred with the band some years ago, Jared Anderson wanted to rejoin but sadly passed away in 2006.  Erik remained positive in recruiting new members for this recording.  The music is just chaotic and the intensity is overwhelming.  He didn’t lose his focus here, he’s right on accurate.

The lyrical concepts of the band remain grim, touching on variously different atrocities of man.  It fits well into this album and does it justice.  There was somewhat of a moderate gap between releases.  But this band wants to continue to annihilate your eardrums with their uncompromising death metal.  There simply is no stopping Erik from making more and more albums.  He’s considered to be one of the top 20 death metal guitarists of all time and his band the top 8 death metal bands of the decade!

Erik doesn’t execute much lead guitar work on this release.  It’s focus is mainly on the rhythms and what was created.  Track after track you hear a lot of speed picking and guitar chords in an upheaval frenzy.  They just went nuts on here, but every track counted.  There were no songs on here that were boring.  They were filled with dynamite.  The production was top notch and they recorded this one in Florida on Season of Mist records.  If I had to say in a few words what this album concept is I’d say “pure noise terror” and leave it at that.  

Rate: 90%