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A strong, more unique offering that starts to run dry half way.-
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| Minushuman: Bloodthrone |
Thrash Metal, Groove Metal
Season of Mist
August 23rd, 2011
- The Architect - 5:16
- The Size of an Ocean - 4:28
- Evolve - 3:35
- The Day We Died - 4:30
- Forgotten Fields - 7:02
- Three Mile Island - 4:25
- Godspeed - 4:56
- Another All - 4:27
- Bloodthrone - 5:20
- Kill Me - 6:03
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| Review Information |
Release length: 50:52
Review posted on August 24th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 7/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Watch the World Die (2008) • Bloodthrone (2011)
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| Review |
Minushuman may have technically formed back in 2007, but apparently the group had existed since 1997. Originally known as Dark Poetry, a Death and Thrash Metal band from France, this group issued a demo and two full-length recordings before the group dropped the Death Metal element and went with a Groove and Thrash Metal sound for Minushuman. After some mixed feedback for their debut recording under this monicker, Watch the World Die, Minushuman returned to the studio and roughly three years later present us their follow-up album, Bloodthrone. But, is this catchy, Groove filled Thrash album enough to make Metal fans everywhere stand up and take notice?
While mixing Groove Metal and Thrash Metal may not be the most unique of ideas, there's plenty of different takes on how the style should sound. Luckily, Minushuman does not go for the more obvious Sepultura clone approach, and brings something a little more unique to the table. With a great production job grounding the album with a modern sound, the music often has a lingering darker atmosphere to it with some heavy guitars, loud and deep bass riffs that work well with the darker sounded riffs to aid the atmosphere along, and fantastic drums that are rich with excellent bass kicks, haunting snares and dominant cymbol crashes with a rhaspier vocal performance that feels both traditional and even stand out during the harmonized moments that don't immediately cut to clean singing, both concepts complimenting the music superbly and gives that darkness a nice edge. Immediately bands like Sybreed do come to mind, but the atmosphere of bands like Sentenced also largely stands out. There's also that human disconnect to some songs, giving the sound a more mechanical sound to that existing atmosphere, such as with "Forgotten Fields" and the heavier use of Groove Metal chugging, but you also get "The Day We Died" prior to it which seems to focus more on melancholic "Dark Metal" riffs that creates a very moving sound to the track that really sticks with the listener here and even on other tracks, including the more haunting, icey chords of the chorus of "Forgotten Fields".
Bloodthrone starts off with the track "The Architecht", which is a good song to kick the album off with, having a nice slower paced groove throughout the album that is catchy and a little on the lighter side of things, easing you into the album and showing off the heavier sound and great recording quality and how well it works even with the lighter material the band performs. But, for as catchy as the song is, it's actually not until "The Size of an Ocean" that you'll really take notice to the band. Here, Minushuman really show off the atmospheric traits the album has, which causes the song to just captivate the listener from start to finish. This track is also where you'll really stard to bob your head along to the music. While many tracks on here really sound heavy and catchy and feel like you should be banging your head along, chances are good you won't cause whiplash or anything, but it's mostly due to how good the songs are and how well they work with the atmosphere. "The Day We Died" will have a little more neck jerking action on your end, but songs like "The Architect", and especially "Forgotten Fields", you'll wind up more just moving your head along through much of the track, especially when the songs like the latter are more enchanting then lighter sounding like the first of the two mentioned.
There's nothing really worth complaining about with this album. Bloodthrone makes for a fantastic album that hits hard from start to finish. The only real problem here is that after the first spin, the music is not all that interesting as it once was. There's no denying songs like "Godspeed" are still strong examples of solid Groove Metal and Thrash Metal combined together, but at the same time Bloodthrone doesn't really offer up much variety outside a random slower or lighter sounding cut. Much has a heavy atmosphere, but even if that's not too rich, it's still about the same kind of approach to it, and after "Forgotten Fields", you can't help but feeling content with what you heard and consider wandering away from the album. In no way did Minushuman do a bad job, or does the album sound like the last part is all filler. In fact the heavier Thrash influence to "Another All" is enough to kind of kick things back up a notch keep the album going until the somber, slower closing instrumental "Kill Me", another good song but sadly another that just does not really spark much of an interest from the listener.
Basically, Bloodthrone is a good album until the half-way point, and then you'll start to lose some interest, especially after the first listen. In no way is this a bad album, or littered with filler material, it's that the band's overall sound often doesn't carry much variety to it. If you like solid, atmospheric material you'll enjoy a number of songs on the album well past that first spin, and it's the kind of release you can pick up, hit random, and be content no matter what song you start with, but after a few tracks you'll definitely start to feel like you need something a little different. Will you come back to Bloodthrone? Absolutely. The group's less-than-traditional combination of Groove and Thrash works well to have a bit of a unique sound to it that is well worth experiencing. If you have yet to hear Minushuman, now's the time to at least sample what this group has to offer.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Season of Mist.
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