{"id":11650,"date":"2013-05-21T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T00:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=11650"},"modified":"2013-07-20T11:46:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T11:46:53","slug":"album-review-blood-ceremony-the-eldritch-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-blood-ceremony-the-eldritch-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"BLOOD CEREMONY – The Eldritch Dark | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

BLOOD CEREMONY
The Eldritch Dark<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nRise Above (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Canadian occult rockers Blood Ceremony are such a snazzy bunch of doomsters, and The Eldritch Dark<\/em> is the quartet\u2019s third opus. <\/p>\n

Alongside England\u2019s Purson, these guys seem to have found a niche amid the stoned Black Sabbath<\/a> imitators clogging up the current revival rock scene. Their brand of progressive, esoteric rock is an intriguing one to say the least.<\/p>\n

Blood Ceremony is fronted by the dulcet tones of Alia O\u2019Brien whose honeyed tones give the album a mystical feel. As with Purson\u2019s exotic-looking Rosalie Cunningham, O\u2019 Brien has clearly crawled out from under the same rock that once concealed the brooding talents of Jefferson Airplane\u2019s Grace Slick and Coven\u2019s Jinx Dawson. Not only does O\u2019Brien possess a bewitching vocal, but she also extends her talents to organ and flute which litter this platter.<\/p>\n

Album opener \u2018Witchwood\u2019 has all the oaken glory of the already mentioned American outfit Coven; it\u2019s a doom-laden, organ-drenched slow-mover of a track weighed down by the darkly-tinged guitar sound of Sean Kennedy. The drums and bass on offer thud along, enabling this track to combine folk-influence with a Jethro Tull-inspired oddness.<\/p>\n

The flute is certainly the most powerful instrument on the album, giving the opus a mischievous, fantasy, conjuring images of dancing witches and cavorting goblins best viewed in the fireside glow. Lead single \u2018Goodbye Gemini\u2019 has a flute backbone that enables the track to rise above the mediocre, and coupled with O\u2019Brien\u2019s enchanting vocal swoon and the rumbling percussion it\u2019s a superb little track that wouldn\u2019t seem out of place on a Jefferson Airplane album.<\/p>\n

The peculiar yet haunting \u2018Lord Summerisle\u2019 has all the eerie qualities of the 1973 movie The Wicker Man<\/em>, a film I will cite time and time again while summing up the majestic weirdness of this band. This time however O\u2019Brien is accompanied by bassist Lucas Gadke on vocals, and as a track it\u2019s the album\u2019s most spine-chilling. The strong folk influence cannot be denied, as one imagines the band sitting around a woodland fire at dusk, spinning yarns of remote horrors that could still lurk out in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

Blood Ceremony is clearly not your average metal band; in fact such is the diversity within their sound that to class them as such would be criminal. \u2018Ballad Of The Weird Sisters\u2019 is a fine example of the band\u2019s abilities to shift between mood and musical style. It opens as a weighty affair before meandering off its path with an injection of whining violin and that distinctive flute.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the title track conjures up Hammer Horror-style images, introducing itself on a sinister go-go organ and spiraling guitar. It\u2019s the only track that strays close to the classic Black Sabbath sound that so many so-called occult rock bands seem obsessed with nowadays. Lyrically, it\u2019s very much of the esoteric variety with tales of dark, fiery legends, reminding me of Fairport Convention if they\u2019d made a pact with the devil!<\/p>\n

The album also offers us the 60s psych drone of \u2018Drawing Down The Moon\u2019, with its sun-blessed organ, the uplifting yet reflective \u2018Faunus\u2019 and epic closer \u2018The Magician\u2019, with its hypnotic riff.<\/p>\n

Blood Ceremony most certainly revels in the annals of folklore, and it\u2019s no surprise they\u2019ve toured with the likes of Sweden\u2019s Ghost. Mind you, I much prefer these Canadian rockers to the costumed spooks.<\/p>\n

The Eldritch Dark<\/em> is another creepy installment that\u2019ll have you stripping naked and dancing round a woodland fire before you can say \u201cHocus pocus\u201d.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BLOOD CEREMONYThe Eldritch Dark Rise Above (2013)Rating: 8\/10 Canadian occult rockers Blood Ceremony are such a snazzy bunch of doomsters, and The Eldritch Dark is the quartet\u2019s third opus. Alongside England\u2019s Purson, these guys seem to have found a niche amid the stoned Black Sabbath imitators clogging up the current revival rock scene. Their brand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blood-ceremony"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11650"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13088,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11650\/revisions\/13088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}