BLOOD CEREMONY "Living with the Ancients" (Metal Blade/Rise Above)

I fucking love Canada. Most of the bands originated there are really superb. At least the most known of them. Blood Ceremony's debut album, barring the obvious influences, was excellent. In their second effort, Blood Ceremony have a more personal sound even though their music still gives praise to bands like Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull. The heavy riffing behind the flute and organ use is astonishing and much trippy. Blood Ceremony are candid as regards their musical style and they feel free to construct retro-doom compositions without cheapening the folk song-writing. The character of the band is, of course, much occult and the fact that behind the microphone stands Alia O'Brien may bring you in mind the mighty Coven by which they are also influenced. More into the proto metal scene than The Devil's Blood and more connective to plain rock than neo-doomsters, Jex Thoth. I consider them to be more substantial than the previously mentioned bands. "Living with the Ancients" is a beatific listening, dulcet and estrayed from the music that most of the metal bands are playing nowadays. It will travel you to past times and you can figure on Blood Ceremony that it'll be a really nice trip. Hails!

Miltos XIC - 16,5/20

BLOOD CEREMONY "Self-titled" (Rise Above)

Well, that was a shock. 2008 was hemmed around two very important albums for my likes. One of them was “Graves of the Archangels” by the domestic heroes Dead Congregation. The other one was the Canadian Blood Ceremony’s homonym debut album. Fronted by female Ian Anderson, Blood Ceremony puddled their retro influences offering us a beautifully pervious album. In the penthouses where dwarves live that’s the music they probably listen to. Rooted in the woods, that can be the kind of music that elves listen to also. Flute has the main role in Blood Ceremony’s music. Inspired by old time horror films and satanic imagery, the band perfectly depicts the immaculate sacrificial scenes on their very sound. They are the Jethro Tull of modern times. Their amplifiers have the old “gain” switches on and the guitars praise the Black Sabbath’s post “Master of Reality” era. In fact, that’s what their music exactly is: the perfect combination of Jethro Tull and Black Sabbath. The used ceremonial key parts are breath-catching. They’re brought into some majestic operation and thrilling. This is not stoner music. This is DOOM metal (or rock). Doom that transacts with the glorious moments of the past. It will bring tears to your eyes for its purity and beauty. I can guess the whole Blood Ceremony experience is totally acknowledged by attending any live show of the band. We, unfortunately, are doomed to be visited by more commercial artists mainly. It’d be a fucking miracle to have the chance to attend a live show of the band at this “first steps” stage of their short carreer. Anyway. To sum up, the album overflows with inspiration which unmans at least half of the “Black Sabbath wannabes” scene. Enjoy the hurly of the magicians…

Miltos XIC