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Thy Bleeding Skies

Autumn Souls

Written by: PP on 05/07/2011 18:46:05

For some reason people insist on labeling Germany's Thy Bleeding Skies as a modern death metal band even though their sound is far from bands like The Last Felony, SYN:DROM, Man Must Die or even Job For A Cowboy. Based on their sophomore album "Autumn Souls", a more appropriate genre description would absolutely be melodic death metal, if not outright mid-paced doom metal given how the band interchanges the two styles constantly throughout the album.

Opener "The Chaos That Comes" delivers mid tempo melodeath that recalls the Swedish scene with a nice melodic guitar backdrop, which sounds great in contrast with the sub-par grunted vocals. The latter turns out to be the weakest link for Thy Bleeding Skies as the album progresses, because the screams / the growls / the grunts (or whatever you want to call them) come across as weak and uninspiring when compared to the instrumentals. "The Breed Of Tragedies And Fears" alongside the title track "Autumn Souls" then slow things down to creeping doom metal levels, providing plenty of melancholic melody akin to bands like Swallow The Sun and Paradise Lost. This is where Thy Bleeding Skies are at their best, as the slower pace allows for their melodies to develop fully and organically into something interesting. It's just too bad that the vocals almost never maintain a similar quality level, and thus drag down the album considerably.

Later on, a song like "The Inner Aspect" finally reveals some of that modern death metal we've been promised, although here too when the tempo picks up, it becomes obvious that the band relies heavily on Swedish melodeath classics. It's not a bad thing, in fact the song is one of the highlights on the record, but the melancholic and doom-influenced output just sounds that much better. None of this matters though because the vocals are absolutely sub-par throughout, and therefore it becomes difficult to award the album higher than an average mark.

Download: The Chaos That Comes, The Breed Of Tragedies And Fears, The Inner Aspect
For the fans of: Swallow The Sun/Paradise Lost gone melodeath
Listen: Myspace

Release date 17.06.2011
Whirlwind