Time Signature
Call of the metal...
Genre: power metal / traditional heavy metal
I was only introduced the 3 Inches of Blood this year when they performed at the first ever Copenhell Festival. I had come across the name before, but - I must admit - in my ignorance and bias, I dismissed it as probably being some silly goregrind or perhaps some generic death-core or metalcore. Their gig at Copenhell proved me wrong, and I was more than positively surprised at their traditionalist heavy metal and power metal music. An old friend of mine, who's now the lead singer of an up-and-coming emo/alt rock/metal band, was also present at the concert; he poiunted at me and said "I bet this is just your kind of metal!" He was right.
I went out and bought a random 3 Inches of Blood album just to check them out. That album was "Here Waits Thy Doom", and it did not disappoint me. Although I myself play in a death metal band, and I enjoy listening to a lot of extreme type of metal, my heart will always beat for good ole traditional heavy metal, and there is a lot of that on this power metal/heavy metal album. The opening track, which is also my favorite, sounds like the bastard love child of Running Wild and Judas Priest, while "Rock in Hell" contains a couple of riffs that remind me of the great Dio and a chorusline that has a certain Priest or Accept quality to it. "Silent Killer" has more of a biker rock drive to it, but also contains a very Maiden-esque power chord verse, and "Fierce Defender" is an Iron Maiden meets Running Wild galloping rocker. "Preacher's Daughter" has more of a 70s protometal sense to it, and "Call of the Hammer" is more of a melodic power thrasher, as is "At the Foot of the Great Glacier".
And on it goes; virtually of the tracks can be referenced back to the behemoths of traditional 80s metal. Does that mean that 3 Inches of Blood is just a copycat act? No, not really, because, on this album at least, they take all the elements from the various big genres of the 1970s and 1980s and combine them into their own brand of power metal. Of course, it cannot be denied that "Here Wats Thy Doom" is a very retro album and that such a retro style will always have a some unoriginality to it, but that that is the very strength of this album, since this retro effect obsiously is intentional.
Oh, and Cam Pipes' high pitched voice... I love it. It is reminiscen of, but not as impressive as, Rob Halford and King Diamond, and, needless to say, it suits the music very well.
I would recommend this album to fans of traditional heavy metal and power metal alike, and I think that the many metal fans who have gone through the journey from tradtitional metal to extreme metal with enjoy traveling back in time with 3 Inches of Blood on this album.