Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Blood Tsunami - Grand Feast for Vultures (2009)

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.