3 Inches Of Blood - Battlecry Under A Winter Sun [2002][EAC,log,cue. FLAC]

Artist: 3 Inches Of Blood
Release: Battlecry Under A Winter Sun
Discogs: 1693864
Released: 2002
Label: Teenage Rampage Records, Fashion Before Function / Death O'Clock
Catalog#: TRR002, FBF001 / TOC001D
Format: FLAC / Lossless / Log (100%) / Cue / CD
Country: UK
Style: Rock, Heavy Metal

Tracklisting:

01. Ride Darkhorse, Ride
02. Destroy The Orcs
03. Headwaters Of The River Of Blood
04. Heir To The Chaos Throne
05. Skeletal Onslaught
06. Journey To The Promiseland
07. Lady Deathwish
08. Curse Of The Lighthouse Keeper
09. Blazing Fires Of Evermore
10. Hall Of Heroes
11. Balls Of Ice

During the latter days of the power metal revival, there were some Johnny-come-lately types that began filtering their way out of North America, sporting a sound a good bit different from what Europe was. This naturally excludes the likes of Kamelot and Steel Prophet who had roots going back to earlier than 2001 when it suddenly became cool to have a retro sound again. Among the better representatives of this group was a ragtag outfit out of Vancouver called 3 Inches Of Blood, sporting a sound that could be likened to a cryptic mixture of Manowar, King Diamond, and even a latent bit of frosty melodeath meets power metal sound popularized by Children Of Bodom.

The band’s somewhat uneven debut “Battlecry Under A Wintersun” is a pretty straight-lined affair in terms of style, but much less so in its delivery. The riff work is heavily derivative and indicative of several bouncier NWOBHM acts along the lines of early 80s Saxon and Iron Maiden, and the production job definitely hearkens back to the same era with a very restrained drum sound along with an archaic 80s guitar sound that is generally only employed by the likes of Slough Feg or some other retro band of this day and age. But the vocal character is another matter entirely, marrying together a sepulchral banshee wail that captures something along the lines of a heavily nasal King Diamond falsetto and a high pitched toneless shouting style resting somewhere between a hardcore and Gothenburg sound.

This marriage of old and a tiny bit of new prove somewhat effective, but find itself largely stuck within a one-dimensional songwriting paradigm that actually makes Hammerfall look varied. Pick any song from the gallop heavy lead off “Ride Darkhorse Ride”, the more coasting yet still fast and bouncy “Skeletal Onslaught” or the return of the night of the living gallop riffs with twice as many over the top high notes “Hall Of Heroes”, and the same picture of early 80s barbarians with a little helping of occult mysticism will leap out instantaneously. With the exception of the last aforementioned song, nothing on here even breaks the 4 minute mark, and likewise plays it very safe from a standpoint of structure, though the vocal niche and semi-comical lyrical delivery preclude anything that would be outwardly ambitious in compositional craftsmanship.

The one thing that sort of keeps this album from being skip-worthy is that it still manages to be fun despite the lack of anything really intricate going on. With the exception of some of the vocal work, this album could have been written 28 years ago and would have been considered par for the course for a band trying to compete with Satan or Mercyful Fate for the shot at being the most extreme example of what was the trailblazing, but is today considered traditional heavy metal. This is something that I wouldn’t say about most of the German bands that were getting big at the time that were at least modernizing their production practices and trying to break away from the exaggerated falsetto singing style of the 80s. But for those who wonder what it would be like to hear King Diamond sing about battles rather than witches and ghosts, or hear Iron Maiden without all of the literature and cinema references, this is an acceptable guilty pleasure.

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