FRENZY FIRE

    

METAL & ROCK REVIEWS

    
             
HOME            
REVIEWS            
ARTISTS            
UPCOMING            
LINKS            
             

     
     
     
         
         

Half Blood

      
         
         
         
     
             
Half Blood are a death/thrash metal band from Chile formed in 2014, releasing their self titled debut album in 2017.    
             
Slicing through the airways with a savage swipe, 'Adamas' is a pummelling slab of extreme metal, with its sound influenced by bands such as Fear Factory, Tool and Slipknot. The guttural howl of lead singer Manuel Castillo is menacing and full of venom as 'Adamas' stomps on, and over, anything foolish enough to stand in its way. Growling and howling, brash and brutal, 'Self Exile' ups the pace and romps aggressively on its way. The mosh pit will be going insane to this one, with violent head banging the order of the day. With raw energy oozing from everywhere, the Spanish sung 'Crisis' is skull crushingly heavy and will demolish buildings with its ferocious force. Death metal featuring on a main stream radio station is something of a rarity, yet 'The Choice' features a cleaner vocal style and enough melodic moments to give it a chance of doing so. Touching other genres such as grunge, progressive and hard rock, 'The Choice' shows Half Blood willing to experiment with their sound, although the death metal growl does re-appear throughout the latter half of the song.    
             
'El Origen' displays a more technical death metal approach, the gut wrenching vocals full of aggression and spitting venom. 'El Origen' is nearly seven minutes of highly energetic and fiercely intense music that may just scare a few listeners. Pounding your ears with its double bass drums, 'Forever' rumbles along with buzzing guitars and a cracking growled vocal performance, that would have "normal" singers reaching for the throat sweets... Experimenting with their sound once again, Half Blood deliver 'No Future', featuring a mix of clean and growled vocals and music of a more technical and progressive nature than anything else on the album.    
             
Mellow guitars and soulful vocals leads the listener towards a place a million miles away from the death metal genre as 'Not Your Own' floats in, but is very quickly brought back the moment the vocals kick in. Very heavy and aggressive, 'Not Your Own' pounds endlessly away at the senses. Pace is increased as 'Release' strides into view, meandering from death to grunge to progressive and many more influences. As mentioned before, Half Blood are a band not afraid to experiment with their sound, the debut album inspired by originality rather than just copying the traditional South American extreme metal sound. That said though, the final song 'G.T.F.A.' is classic South American extreme metal, played at a furious pace that will have the mosh pit circling in an aggressive style.    
             
Overall, gut wrenching howls and growls, fierce riffs and wrecking ball heavy rhythms, Half Blood deliver a crushingly brutal slab of extreme metal.    
             
             
Review by Iron Mathew Collins    
             
Reviewed for High Road Publicity    
             
             
Top