BLOOD CEREMONY

A Toronto retro-hard rock that has released a couple album (so far), the present being their debut album. BC is, despite its satanic name, a "prog quartet", fronted by main/sole songwriter guitarist Sean Kennedy and the delicious keyboardist-flutist-singer Alia O'Brien. Technically to call this kind of album a pure-prog album can be a stretch to some, but if you think that early Black Sabbath is proggish, you'll have no problem loving this album, as Alia is worth a thousands Ozzy (looks much cuter too), but also plays keys and thrills our ears with some consistent flute solos. But if the tunes often have so real intros, and have more prog characteristic, they don't have the outstanding songwriting ideas that Tony, Geezer and Oz had back in those days

So if your 70's-nostalgia longing will be immediately met with tracks like the opening Master Of Confusion, the short Tullish interlude Wine Of Wizardry or Hop Food, you'll be relatively happy when the disc stops spinning after the album-lengthiest Hymn To Pan, and you will be relieved (read: beg for mercy) from the constant bombardment of the same kind of music that you had been, subjected to. Of course the min redeeming quality is that BC sounds much better than most of the hard rock bands that have come out in the last two decades, but as often, the "retro" feel, while pleasant, it somewhat fails to really develop its own sound/soul and it has a certain "made ala X, Y or Z" aura.

I generally avoid to talk about future albums that I haven't heard, but rumours has it that there is a lot more of gloomy atmosphere, maybe even close to doom metal music. Sooo, if you'd want to investigate BC as a proghead, you might want to start with the debut. Still worth discovering, but start with the present and make sure you investigate before investing.