Bloodride
Bloodridden Disease
5.5
Finland’s Bloodride went out of their way on their website to describe their nostalgia for the glory days of thrash. Not only the bands themselves, but also the scene–the tape trading, flyers, the excitement and newness. The band cites the American movement, and specifically Testament, Exodus, Slayer, and Anthrax, as particularly influential to them. So it’s a little surprising that Bloodridden Disease doesn’t sound nearly as American retro as the band would have you believe. Many of the elements are there, but the music still seems like a product of the band’s time and place. It’s kind of like my mandatory semester of Latin in eighth grade, when my apathetic, clumsy literal translations always came out something like “Spartacus has much comrades on the Appian Way”. These guys are better at playing old school thrash than I was at speaking Latin, but in truth, neither of us are/were better than C students.
Despite partially missing their stylistic mark, Bloodride do manage to turn out some strong moments. Unfortunately, they need to work on their consistency. Bloodridden Disease begins quite well, with “The Arrival”, easily the strongest song on the EP. It’s the only one of the six that truly smokes from start to finish. It’s not just its quicker tempo that helps--several of the other songs are equally fast. What this song has that is found less consistently on the rest of the album, is fire. That adrenaline rush of frenetic immediacy that is at the heart of thrash is missing from much of Bloodridden Disease. The album has plenty of good sections, but not enough actual good songs. The riffs wander too frequently into melody at the expense of neck snapping voracity. The growled vocals are often decent, but some of the vocal lines reveal some songwriting and vocal limitations. In the end, this makes Bloodridden Disease a mediocre effort, although there are moments that fall well above and below that mark.
