Not to be confused with San Franciscan band with the same name, South African Voice Of Destruction (aka VOD) released their sophomore album 'Bloedrivier' few years later the time of San Franciscans (who were not metal in the first place!). They begun with hardcore punk, but 'Bloedrivier' is something more.

'Bloedrivier' is a complex album. I'd call this dark metal, since it is the only plausible category to picture all despair and uneasiness of this music. Hardcore punk, death/thrash/dark/doom and heavy metal and are all put through a cement mixer and the result is blood metal, as they called it. I could name many a band, which I hear during 'Bloedrivier'. The album was recorded in 72 hours at Academy Studios, England with Mags of e.g. Anathema, My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost fame. English doom/dark metal is a big part of this album in sad melodies, weeping guitars and big emotions. Thrash and death metal are other big parts, being between straight and technical, but colourful (crimson?) songwriting adds a lot of nuances to it. Mostly it's the songs that are different, but sometimes different influences are clearly used during a song. Generally 'Bloedrivier' is a job well done, nothing's superb yet nothing's shite.

The album suffers from fast production job. While being quite clear, there's some annoying things, e.g. hi-hats are mixed too high. This sounds, if not flat, but a decent demo, at least nowadays. Actually sound is quite live, I think, but not very powerful. So no studio tricks. But hey, this was recorded seven years ago, so... Performance can't be too polished, either, but it's no problem. Guys don't show off, they give their contributions to the whole. Bassist Diccon Harper appeared later with Demoniac and more recently with DragonForce. You can cut about 10 minutes off the duration, since there's some silence and poor quality live tracks in the end. Shit, these gaps must be destroyed!

The lyrics carry a theme: Drugs and their destructive force. Nothing nice to read, for sure, they carry on the roots of the band. The vocals are as varying as the musical styles; from different, dry death grunts to okay clean voice, and rattling voices. Everything's okay, as the vocals manage to submit angry emotions. Under CD tray is a syringe packaged, without a needle, though, heh. A beautiful painting adores the cover, but otherwise the graphics are lame.

I got this for a very cheap price about two years ago. Since then this has been on and off my tradelist (now it's off, for sure). This is due to the fact, that 'Bloedrivier' is one tough album to digest. This certainly needs time from a listener, if one wants to crack it. It is hard to recommend this to fans of any particular genre, so if you search for some genre-crossing experience, you could do much worse than trying 'Bloedrivier'.

Rating: 6½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/17/2003 13:26