Black Royal – Firebride (Death Blues is Legit)
To be honest when I heard these guys billed as “death blues” I was like isn’t that just another name for nu-metal? Then I realized Black Royal is from Finland so that isn’t possible because, yet again, they prove the country’s quickly becoming the realm of genre-bending in metal. Too bad Finnish hardcore has yet to figure that out… I’d actually heard of them a few months ago when I opened an outdated promo for their last full-length, which had cool art but I had to pass because of the timing, so thankfully I can give them the nice words I intended with the forthcoming Firebride.
I’m happy to announce that Firebride is not nu-metal hiding it’s identity for reasons of survival, but is the kind of blackened filth that would burn off the beard of even the most whitewoke of homebrewers. I mean these riffs shave off that false chaff and leave a crying, sullen lump scraping for the last drop of Metal Blade-branded IPA as it runs into the sewers in which they eventually slink. Black Royal have got this death blues thing down, I say, so it must be a genre. Firebride comes with an excellent variety of slams but it doesn’t keep itself simple, either. They mix in symphonics, a sick sense of bass, groove, and a bit of that pain you expect out of blues.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Black Royal – Firebride
Suicide Records
Cover Art: Samu Peltola
4.3 / 5
