The Finnish quintet released their debut LP Lifebound in 2012. Now they are back with the fourth album, Godsend. This is my first contact with the band so I can't compare to previous works. However, my first impression was very good. They sound like Children of Bodom (with much less keys) mixed with Insomnium. This should paint you the picture of very melodic death metal with speed and aggressiveness.
Godsend is a very straightforward death metal album, no frills or bells and whistles. Ten tracks each between 3:30 and 5:00 minutes totaling just about 42 minutes. This mixing and mastering is done by Henrik Udd (Architects and Bring me the Horizon). Which is interesting because the branding and image of the band does make you think of metalcore, but they sound nothing like those bands. It's melo death mostly guitar driven with occasional keys on the background. The closer track "White Feather" is the one exception to all rules. It's longer than five minutes by a few seconds, it features a keyboard intro and it's slightly more mid-tempo than the rest of the album. It's a smart decision to close the album with something a bit different. Because from track one and video single "Waves of Black" to track 9 "On My Throne", it's a succession of fast tempo, riff mania and melody one after the other. While the songs can blend a bit together in the mid section, this is certainly a fun metal journey. One of the highlights is the high pitched death metal vocals from Jarkko Koukonen who clearly sings the lyrics without loosing the punch.
Godsend is a Finnish melodic death metal record through and through. While Bloodred Hourglass doesn't offer anything new and it's not easy to separate them from some more famous Finnish peers, still they deliver a very competent album within this genre. It's well written, produced and executed. The song writing is catchy and yet heavy leaving you with the feeling to play it again.
SCORE: 80/100
DR: 5
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Released by Out of Line Music on June 28th, 2019
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