When I covered Funeral Hymns, the sophomore record from Chicago’s Bloodletter, I found it to be a tasty morsel of good thrash/melodeath. The stylistic mixture hit Angry Metal Guy Himself, on the other hand, right in the pseudo-Swedish parts. He thought I undersold the album’s quality and actually made Funeral Hymns a runner-up for January 2021 Record o’ the Month. And when I pointed out that metalheads may shy away from Bloodletter’s sound due to some similarities to 2000s metalcore, AMG was quick to give me a remedial history/vocabulary lesson, teaching me that the ‘Gothenburg’ riffs I’m accustomed to in metalcore are actually called ‘Björiffs,’ and that a melodeath band can’t ape metalcore by using said riffs because metalcore already aped said riffs from melodeath in the first place. Either way, I liked Funeral Hymns but didn’t love it, so when its follow-up, A Different Kind of Hell, appeared in the promo bin, I was curious to see if Bloodletter could win me over this time.
At first listen, Bloodletter sound pretty much the same in 2023 as they did in 2021 (or 2020, depending on when you believe the album was actually released). Combine the nasty thrash of a Slayer or a Dark Angel with the melodeath of The Black Dahlia Murder or At the Gates, sprinkle in some icy blackened tremolos, and you’re left with a 35-minute package of highly melodic brutality. Try the embedded track, “The Last Tomb,” and be regaled by an intro of beautifully harmonized guitar leads before the thrash abruptly arrives to kick your teeth in. The track is saturated with groove and melodicism, and I can’t think of a better final resting place for my ears.
Bloodletter has evolved into a well-oiled ass-kicking machine. Their sound hasn’t changed much—although I will say that it feels thrashier this time around—so it took these songs a while to grab me. But grab me they did. The band’s execution feels sharper, their energy more urgent, and their songwriting more impactful. From the moment that “The Howling Dead” unleashes its furious assault, to the final harmonized notes of closer “Flesh Turned to Ash,” A Different Kind of Hell offers no quarter to its helpless victims. Guitarists Peter Carparelli and Pat Armamentos slice, dice, dazzle, and daze their way through a dizzying number of riffs and leads over the course of a relatively short album, and the balance between melody and brutality never skews too far into either extreme.
A few gripes prevent me from 4.0-stepping all over the record. As great as Bloodletter’s sound is, there isn’t much variation to be found on these tracks. With the exception of a few brief, slower chunks here and there, this car goes one speed: full speed. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—this is thrash after all—but it can make it difficult to tell where I am in the track list when it all blurs together. On a related note, I’d love a little more diversity from Carparelli’s vocal approach. He reminds me a bit of Kreator’s Mille Petrozza, but without the screams. A scream here and there would go a long ways towards breaking up the seemingly one-note delivery, and it would also place Bloodletter firmly into the ‘thrash’ bin they’re marketing themselves so strongly towards. But these issues do little to dampen my enjoyment of the record overall.
I think I’m finally picking up what Angry Metal Guy was putting down about the last Bloodletter album. A Different Kind of Hell has fully won me over, and its melodeath/thrash has wormed its way deep inside my brain. A far as US thrash goes in 2023, this is a very good melodic counterpoint to Enforced’s most recent hardcore beatdown.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Wise Blood Records
Websites: bloodlettermetal.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/bloodlettermetal
Releases Worldwide: July 21st, 2023
