Blood Tribe
1369: The Death And Dying Chapters
4.8
Blood Tribe hail from Evansville, Indiana, sounding exactly like you would expect a Midwestern band from a medium-sized Midwestern city to sound. On 1369: The Death And Dying Chapters, they play a mix of thrash, groove, and death metal that could easily be time-warped straight back to 1994. While there are a few fun moments and the band’s metal intentions are unquestionable, overall they fail to really rise above the “decent local band” label.
Blood Tribe’s basic framework is consistent throughout 1369: 1 part late-80's thrash, 2 parts muddy Floridian death metal (in both riffs and production), and 2 parts 90's groove metal. A quick dash of Kreator can even be heard in the very prevalent (see: redundant) slow blast beats (think the Pleasure to Kill wall of sound, only by a far less capable band). There are some slight deviations, such as the long and methodic introduction to the title track, the angular riffs during “Regan,” or the tribal drumming in “The Day I Died,” but for the most part the band pounds, chugs, growls, screams, slams, and grooves their way through 10 songs of decent-but-oh-so-derivative metal. The lyrics are all straight out of the aggressive/meat-headed post-thrash mold, minus the high caliber vocal execution heard in acts like Pantera.
By the time 1369 is finished, it’s hard to shake the feeling that it disappeared into the background. Absolutely nothing on the album jumps out and takes hold. In fact, the only moments that become memorable do so the wrong way (that spoken word section in “Blood is Preferred”...). Blood Tribe is lacking both a unique voice and the songwriting chops to render that lack of originality acceptable. Unless they take steps to remedy this issue, they will forever be stuck as the “local opener” on Evansville concert posters.
