BLOOD

I listened to this latest CD by Kopecky brothers a couple of times and it took quite a while until I finally was able to make up my mind about it. After comparing it again and again with their debut and "Sunset Gun" honestly I've to say that "Blood" sounds quite disappointing to me and I prefer much those ones. The kind of stuff we get presented on this disc sounds to my ears predominantly like a powerful demonstration of technical skills and reveals the type of indulgent up-and-down-scaling that I usually like to put my critics on when it comes to tech metal. I really don't have problems enjoying tough and angular sounding music but what I desperately miss on this record is the kind of diversity in their music which appealed much to me on their previous one. This music here is an extremely heavy industrial type one and to me it appears rather as a cold fabrication of sounds, heartless, pointless and uninspired. Where have the sonic landscapes from their previous work gone? I've read comments from some reviewers on the net comparing this record with KC's more recent work or even calling it a less jazzy version of some of the work by Hellborg/Lane. Frankly spoken I completely fail to confirm this view since I enjoy listening to especially the latter one. From the point of musicianship there isn't anything to complaint about, it's brilliant as usual and the complexity of the compositions is still very high as well. Nevertheless this ain't be the kind of stuff I'll listen to regularly but most of tech/industrial metal fans will probably be fascinated by this album. Just with a lot of goodwill and to give this band credit for the effort and skills I still can rate this work with 3 stars.

Great moods, too bad about the songs.

Blood is the first album I've heard by the Kopecky brothers. And the dark, sinister and eerie moods and atmospheres they create are really interesting and likeable.

But the songs as such doesn't work though. Themes are repeated to death with too little variation, the songs hardly move forward at all, and there's a distinct lack of nerve and tension in the songs here as well.

Give these guys some good songs and they'll make killer versions with the moods they are creating. But as songwriters themselves they are found lacking, at least on this release.

There aren't too many full instrumental trios out there that don't use keyboards, and even fewer where the musicians are all brothers. It is a while since I last heard any music from Kopecky and this album has reinvigorated my interest in them. Now signed to Canadian label Unicorn Records I hope that having been on UK's Cyclops, Italy's Mellow Records and France's Musea they have now found their spiritual home which will allow them to be more prolific, and I believe that they have. Unicorn release a lot of material that is jazz-oriented, and while Kopecky don't fit into that mould they do have the same inventiveness and musical complexity of many of that genre. This is music that is uncompromising, always looking forwards, as the brothers keep bouncing off each other and letting each take the lead as is appropriate.

That this is challenging music is never in doubt, that many people will find it too complex and labyrinth for their understanding is also apparent. Here is a rock band that really are like no other, and five albums in they are still driving forward whatever perceived boundaries there may be. No keyboards, no vocals, and just three guys hitting those strings and drums to make a glorious togetherness that is like no other. It is hard to categorise exactly what style of music they are performing as by its very nature there is so much going on as they ignore genre categorisations altogether. By definition they are 'progressive', but musically this is much more in the hard rock almost shredder arena, but that is also not correct. Think of it as rock music being played by three musicians linked by 'blood' and performing some of the most complex music around.

It will take you a while to get into it, but once you do?.