Blood Tsunami - Grand Feast for Vultures (2009)^{Release ID: 9398}

Blood Tsunami were formed in 2004 and when it became apparent that their original drummer wasn't up to the task, they recruited the infamous former Emperor skinsman, Bård Eithun, aka Faust, who had recently been released from prison. They started playing thrash metal at a time when the genre was in the doldrums, but by the time of the release of the sophomore, Grand Feast for Vultures, the somewhat half-hearted thrash revival was underway with bands like Gama Bomb and Municipal Waste dominating things. One bright spark though, was the resurgence of Kreator whose Enemy of God and Hordes of Chaos albums had re-established the Germans' reputation somewhat. Blood Tsunami took this aggressive approach of the "new" Kreator and married it with some good old-fashioned Iron Maiden worship and produced an interesting hybrid of blackened thrash and traditional metal that I personally found quite intoxicating and irresistible.

Opening up with a one-two thrash combo, Castle of Skulls and Nothing but Contempt get us off to a breakneck start, with the early seconds of the opener grabbing our attention by channelling Slayer's Angel of Death. These two and the title track which close out the first side are where the Kreator-influenced thrash component is at it's most prominent and all three are real rip-snorters (as we say round these parts) Grand Feast for Vultures itself being an absolute face melter! The other four tracks aren't strictly thrash metal and whilst containing elements thereof, to greater or lesser effect, there is a more pronounced heavy metal presence. This is most obvious in the Maiden-esque lead work with some solos that may have just dropped in from Piece of Mind or Powerslave. Whatever persuasion they are derived from, this album is chock full of riffs with the guitar work of Pete Evil and Dor Amazon dominating almost everything.

Pete Evil (sadly, not his real name, that being Peter Michael Kolstad Vegem) has a shrieking black metal delivery which is bolstered at times by the more death metal-sounding backing of Amazon and bassist Pete "Bosse" Boström. This combination of shrieks and barks works very well and gives the vocals a very muscular tone. Pete Evil is obviously the main man here and the production does enhance and highlight his contributions with Bosse and Faust losing out in the mix it seems. This is a great shame because if you take the time to concentrate on Faust's drumming then you will hear that it really is impressive and, no matter what else he may or may not be, the guy is one hell of a fantastic skinsman, his power and precision making me think of an extreme metal John Bonham.

Side two features two epic tracks, first of which is the twelve-minute instrumental Horsehead Nebula, which could be in danger of coming over as self-indulgent, but in fact it is a very well constructed and epic instrumental track that leads us hither and thither and successfully throws in plenty of memorable moments and is the track where Blood Tsunami are at their most Maiden-esque. I've always been partial to thrash instrumentals and this is a fine example of the discipline, sitting as one of my favourites alongside Orion and The Ultra-Violence. Closing things out is my favourite track, One Step Closer to the Grave, another ten-minute plus track and with it's slower pacing it almost verges on epic doom metal in it's execution. It begins with a real lurking menace before exploding into another instrumental extravaganza with the guitarists trading solos as it storms headlong to it's maelstrom of a climax.

OK, so Grand Feast for Vultures isn't a perfect record and at times it threatens to tip over into being overblown, but the performances are excellent, the songs are great and it's suggestion of sonic excess is a plus, not a minus in my book.

I’ve been aware of Norwegian thrash metallers Blood Tsunami for many years now since first giving them a glancing listen around the time of this 2009 sophomore album. I believe my attention had been drawn to them by the inclusion of drummer Faust (Emperor/Thorns/Aborym/Djevel) whose notoriety within the underground extreme metal scene had only been enhanced by his incarceration for murder back in 1993. I recall quite liking “Grand Feast For Vultures” too but not enough to give it much dedicated attention so it had to settle for more of a background music role at the time. It’s not terribly surprising that my recollections are a bit hazy around the finer details of the album now then as I’ve never really given it the active-listening time required to confidently rate or review it so it’s nomination as this month’s The Pit feature release seems like a great opportunity to correct that omission & potentially reinvigorate my interest in a band that I haven’t kept abreast of for a full decade.

“Grand Feast For Vultures” is certainly a professionally executed release. The cover artwork is attractive & is somewhat of a drawcard for thrash metal fans while the production job is clean & powerful with the guitars sitting front & centre as they should be on any riff-driven metal record. All of the performances are high quality too & one gets the feeling that Blood Tsunami were consciously keeping well within their capabilities while recording this record, possibly in the interest of keeping things as accessible as possible. All in all though, I’d have to say that they’ve given their second album every chance of digging its talons into me as there are no obvious flaws in the packaging & presentation so it really comes down to whether or not the song-writing can deliver.

While generally being labelled as a thrash metal band, there’s a little more to Blood Tsunami’s sound on "Grand Feast For Vultures". Sure, the Slayer influence is fairly pronounced at times, particularly during the first half of the album, & I can’t deny that those are the moments that offer me the most appeal as classic Slayer is pretty much the best thing humanity is responsible for having created in my opinion. An obvious point of difference comes in the vocal delivery of front man Pete Evil (I really hope that’s his real name) though as he steers well clear of your traditional thrash space by opting for a blackened shriek that sounds almost metalcore-ish in the way he spits out his lyrics. He’s supported by some deeper & fairly generic death metal growls that don’t add much of value. As the tracklisting progresses you’ll also notice the presence of an additional musical component in the influence of Iron Maiden & the melodic death metal scene on Blood Tsunami’s sound, often in a way that sees the listener unable to tell from which of those two options the band have been inspired. You’ll find several examples of up-tempo & melodic riffs that could have been lifted straight off an At The Gates album while also having your attention drawn to some well executed guitar harmonies that will leave you in no doubt that “Powerslave” was being played on repeat during drinks breaks at the Blood Tsunami rehearsal room, particularly during epic album centrepiece “Horsehead Nebula”. This combination of influences works quite well for the most part but I’m not going to try to hide the fact that I’ve never been the biggest fan of melodeath so the thrashier parts of the album definitely offer me a lot more appeal than the more melodic & harmony-driven ones.

Another element that’s worth noting is the use of long track lengths with the 51-minute record only including seven tracks, the last two of which exceed the ten-minute mark. I don’t see this as a weakness as I don’t think the song structures sound overly indulgent. Instead, they tend to run their own course without ever leaving the impression that they've been needlessly extended. The main detractor for me though is that this is a pretty basic sounding record to be honest. Some of the riffs sound a little generic & undercooked while the components that Blood Tsunami have borrowed from their influences are often presented in a way that sees them trying to emulate their idols rather than using their inspiration to create something fresh & original . When you add that to the strong focus on melody & a vocal delivery that’s nothing more than serviceable then you get a record that’s generally enjoyable but rarely impressive. To be fair, there’s only the one track that I struggle with (i.e. the disappointing “Laid To Waste” which suffers from a very ordinary melodeath chorus) but I have to say that the remaining six never have me bouncing off the walls even though they have some really cool parts.

Overall, I’d suggest that “Grand Feast For Vultures” is worth a listen or two for those with a penchant for well executed & professionally produced thrash metal, particularly if you don’t mind a bit of melodic death metal or a blackened thrash vocal delivery. As a point of reference, Blood Tsunami’s sound sits somewhere in the space between Toxic Holocaust, Skeletonwitch & Kreator’s post-2010 works & if that sounds like your bag then you may be in for a treat.

Blood Tsunami are a a collection of musicians that contain a former host of Sweden’s MTV as well as Faust (yes, him) on drums.  With such a well-known name on the skins you could be forgiven for thinking that this is no ordinary thrash band and in some regards you would be right but not necessarily for the reasons you might think.  I found Grand Feast for Vultures to be quite a deceptive record in terms of its tagging here at least on Metal Academy as I find the thrash metal component of the sound to be often pushed into a secondary or supporting role depending on the song.  If anything it is more the energy levels throughout the whole album compliments the tagging as ‘thrash metal’ the best as opposed to this being an out and out thrash sounding record.

If I had the time (or inclination) I would argue that there is a solid amount of heavy metal influence on Grand Feast for Vultures to warrant a dual tag with The Guardians.  Although there are some absolute thrash tracks on here, there are more than a few tracks that are hi-octane heavy (yet somehow not speed) metal and there is even a fair old smattering of some more doomy riffs peppered across the record as well that are more in the epic doom realm of things.  As such, I take the riffs away from the listening experience of this album as being my main point of memory as the guitar work drives the album so fluidly that it is impossible for me to focus much on anything else.

I find the vocals to be alright, a kind of blackened thrash type of style which work well enough but they do feel a bit out of place sometimes on the less thrash orientated passages.  Considering the stature of the man behind the skins, the production job does not do him any favours in terms of me being able to pick up on his performance pretty much throughout the whole album.  The drums are audible in the mix and Faust is most certainly doing his stuff well but the drums feel under-appreciated overall.  This is a shame because the interest levels in predominantly the guitar work do start to wane as I approach the final two tracks of the record, one being a 12 minute instrumental and the final track being a largely instrumental 10 minute affair.  If the drums had been allowed a little more presence then I perhaps could have enjoyed these protracted numbers a little better.

Rating this album is a tough one in all honesty as although it most certainly does not qualify for the high end of the scores, it is also no turkey either and displays a level of musicianship in places that is rarely maintained over such a varied and fluid soundscape like the one Blood Tsunami tread.  In the end I surmise that my main gripes are with the production as opposed to any quality issues so I would describe this as being a strong middle scoring record.