BLOOD CEREMONY

Well, this is really something! Imagine a Black Sabbath cover band with a female vocalist who also plays a very Jethro Tull-like flute! Yes, that´s pretty much Blood Ceremony´s sound. They were from Canada and they emulate quite well the Brimingham quartet (around the time of their Paranoid/Master of Rality Cds), while Alia O´brien´s vocals are pretty interesting. So much so I was convinced this album was recorded in the late 60´s until I read it was in fact a recent release (of 2008) All the intruments timbres, the overall atmosphere and even the cover seems to be of that time. To top it all, the title of several songs are similar to BS classics (Master Of Confusion, Return Of Forever, Children Of Future and so on). Still, not really a copycat of sorts. More like a homage, I guess. Of course the members of the band don´t have the same ingenous songwriting skills as a Tony Iommi or a Geezer Butler (not ot mention Ozzy Osborne´s very distintive way of singing this kind of doom music). The tracks are not much varied either. On the other hand, no tune here is bad either.

If you´re a fan of this style of music, go for it. It is all very well recorded, well performed and the production is very adequate. The singer is very promising too (and her flute playing is outstandig). I really hope those guys will develop their sound into something more original and consistent. Their approach is quite bold and spurred my curiosity into listening to their second efford.

Rating: a good start. Very promising, so a 3 star rating is fair enough.