Minushuman: Bloodthrone

Originally scheduled for release in June, Minushuman's Bloodthrone will not be out till August. While this delay might seem annoying to some, there is actually a good reason behind it. The band's label, Season of Mist, decided to push the release in order to be able to release the album internationally, and not just in Europ, which was the original plan. And, that was a very good decision, because this, their sophomore album, is actually quite good, and deserves the attention of the entire world and not just Europe.

Minushuman are often described as a thrash metal band, and, while there certainly are many thrash metal elements on this album and the semi-growled vocals are very death-thrash, Bloodthrone is much too ecletic and melodic, in my opinion, to be considered a thrash metal album as such. There is a very modern feel to this release, and the music is, although powerful, generally very melodic and might well be described as a refreshing alternative to the Gothenburg brand of melodic metal. Keyboards are ubiquituous on this album, but not dominant, as their primary function is to provide a fat layer of melancholic atmosphere, which generates a very big and almost epic sound, at times reminiscent of a darker kind of power metal.

Most of the tracks are considerably heavy and evoke the same sort of atmosphere associated with Paradise Lost (especially the closing track contains passages that seem inspired by Paradise Lost), and there are plenty of different types of groovy passages, while some tracks also contain almost uplifting riffage – for instance, ther eis a very captivating melodic utempo riff that recurs in "The Architect", and the intros of "Evolve" and "Three Mile Island" are awesomely hard rocking, with the latter being the most thrashy track on the album along with "Another All" with its blend of crossover thrash and melodic black metal.

Bloodthrone draws on many subgenres of metal, and you can hear elements from gothic metal, industrial metal, melodic death metal, thrash metal, hard rock, doom metal and alternative metal, and Minushuman successfully integrate all of these elements into their own very consistent and coherent brand of melodic melancholic modern metal, which is very captivating and enjoyable to listen to.

Track Listing:
1. The Architect
2. The Size of an Ocean
3. Evolve
4. The Day We Died
5. Forgotten Fields
6. Three Mile Island
7. Godspeed
8. Another All
9. Bloodthrone
10. Kill Me

Added: September 11th 2011
Reviewer: Kim Jensen
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2526
Language: english

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