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

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.