After the decidedly more doom laden approach of 2014s Under Satan's Sun, veteran act Bloody Hammers have gone full bore into melancholy and somewhat psychedelic gothic territory here on their latest release for Napalm Records, titled Lovely Sort of Death. The husband & wife duo of Anders Manga ( Vocals, Guitar, Bass) and Devallia (Keyboards/Organ) rely much more on trippy darkwave as well as accessible goth flavor here on their latest, the crushing, fuzz laden guitar riffs taking a backseat at times in favor of moody keyboard textures and haunting vocals, a twist that's likely to alienate some of their core metal fans but no doubt opening their music up to a much more varied fanbase. To be honest, there's some pretty catchy material here, such as "Lights Come Alive", "Bloodletting On the Kiss", the bouncy "Stoke the Fire", the soaring "Astral Traveler", and the emotional "The Reaper Comes". Fear not though, Lovely Sort of Death still contains some distortion laded doom/gloom numbers, like "Messalina", "Ether", and "Infinite Gaze to the Sun", with Manga's guitar riffs front and center, but for the most part his wife Devallia has a much stronger presence on this album with her array of synths, organ, and Mellotron, adding creepy textures and colors throughout each and every song.
Fans of Type O Negative will no doubt find much to enjoy here, but if you don't gravitate towards the gothic side of the doom spectrum, you might want to check out some samples of this one prior to purchase. Overall, some accessible material on this one, as the band seems to be wanting to branch out into some new territory, but it falls a bit on the heavy meter no matter how dark parts of it are.
Track Listing
1) Bloodletting On the Kiss
2) Lights Come Alive
3) The Reaper Comes
4) Messalina
5) Infinite Gaze to the Sun
6) Stoke the Fire
7) Ether
8) Shadow Out of Time
9) Astral Traveler
10) Catastrophe
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