SAVAGE BLOOD – “Downfall” Album Review

SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION

SAVAGE BLOOD is a “young” German band, comprised of veteran musicians. They take advantage of this combo by combining old school metal with a modern sound. The eye-catching album artwork by Diego Gedoz de Souza was actually the initial reason I listened to the album. I had never heard of SAVAGE BLOOD until a couple weeks ago. And so, with nothing else to go on, I gave the album a shot simply because of the standout cover.

Album artwork, in general, is an underrated art and marketing platform. Whether we like to admit it or not, a lot of metal fans judge bands based on their artwork (assuming the fan is not familiar with the group). Personally, I’ve dismissed bands in the past based on artwork alone without giving them a listen. Is is unfair to the band? Sure. But it’s a fact of life…you have to be able to market your product well! SAVAGE BLOOD passes that benchmark with flying colors here. Now, for the music contained within the artwork.

REVIEW

The album opens with “Downfall” and, boy, does SAVAGE BLOOD know how to open an album! The ‘slow build into the first song’ technique is as old as metal music, but the band does a good job of it here – and it will get you banging your head at about the 50 second mark. In addition, the band makes a wise choice placing “Downfall” as the opener. It is the most accessible, and overall best, song on the album. It draws folks in with good guitar tone, a verse that is heavy, and a chorus that is catchy. The vocals by Peter Diersmann are pretty solid here and remind me of a more melodic KREATOR – yes, I realize I’m comparing a German band to another German band.

The second track “Release the Beast” is an early example of two common threads throughout the album. 1) It has some great moments that get your attention and urge you to bang your head, but also has some moments that don’t quite hit their mark. 2) A strange production decision to start fading out the end of tracks even though they have an actual ending. This ruins the exclamation point at the end of several songs and left me a bit confused.

An example of the first trend is the third track, “Savage Blood”. It mixes power metal and Nu metal riffs…cool! However, the verse feels played out and derivative of a million other songs. The first and last 45 seconds of the track are great, but the middle of the song falls a little flat. “Violent Attack”, on the other hand, has the opposite problem. It has a cliche vocal-solo power metal opening. Not a fan of that. But the song grows significantly better as it progresses. The pre-chorus is catchy; the chorus is punchy and the lyrics will creep into your head long after listening to the track. The bridge/solo is also simple but a nice, natural evolution of the main riff. “Violent Attack” largely clicked for me, after the lackluster opening few moments, and is one of the highlights of the album.

“Queen on the Run”, the fifth track on the album is a bit of an outlier. It has more of an 80s metal vibe than the rest of the album – reminiscent of QUEENSCRYCHE -and is the most melodic track. I know other fans have stated it’s their favorite song on the album, though I don’t particularly care for it. “Queen on the Run” is an example of a listen-for-yourself song.

The sixth track is “We Sweat Blood”. Now, that is a track I can get behind. It adds more thrash elements to the SAVAGE BLOOD sound. I can also visualize the chorus “We…Sweat…Blood” being chanted by crowds at live shows (once we have live shows again).

The album closes out with “Die in Spirit” and “Guardian Angel”. “Die in Spirit” has OVERKILL-like thrashy riffs but still manages to work in a power metal attitude. The song also includes the best guitar work and best riff on the entire album – starting 42 seconds into the song. The lyrics “Let you go” are sang noticeably off-key, which is distracting, but it is otherwise a strong track. “Guardian Angel” on the other hand is softer than the other tracks on Downfall but has heavy moments – the bridge from 2:41 – 3:12 is great! The chorus is also melodic and catchy, and closes out the album by setting the listener gently on their way – instead of with a bang.

CONCLUSION

Downfall is a promising, though inconsistent, debut album for SAVAGE BLOOD. There are more hits than misses but the band needs to shore up the production: it gives the band a professional sound but the mixing needs some fine tuning. As for the music, the band plays things pretty safe, taking no risks and offering nothing really new or innovative. However, SAVAGE BLOOD ultimately succeeds in what they set out to do with Downfall: create new old school metal and bring it into 2020.

HIGHLIGHTS

“Downfall”, “Violent Attack”, “Die in Spirit”