3 INCHES OF BLOOD – “LONG LIVE HEAVY METAL”

Metal Church - The Present Wasteland

CENTURY MEDIA (2012)

Twelve years ago, in the seaside city of Vancouver/Canada, three friends decided to resurrect their then defunct Heavy Metal band. Little did they know that their supposedly one-off reunion gig would kick-start a process that would find them writing new material under the moniker 3 Inches Of Blood.

Though released through a small label, their debut release “Battlecry Under A Wintersun” generated enough interest for the band which led to them being offered better contract deals first by Roadrunner records and then by Century Media, with the support of which they are now prepared to unleash a new collection of fist pumping songs. This new album, the band’s fifth full length, is entitled “Long Live Heavy Metal” and, as you will find out, is capable of generating quite different reactions.

On the strength of the album title alone, I was not at all surprised by the fact that these five lads are really in love with their N.W.O.B.H.M (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) and especially the London legends Iron Maiden – a band that has been a major source of inspiration for all those twin guitar leads and catchy choruses that can be found in abundance in the twelve compositions of the album.

One important reason why some of you might not particularly warm to this band is Cam Pipes’ falsetto-style vocals, but if albums like Judas Priest’s “Pain Killer” and Cirith Ungol’s “Frost And Fire” happen to hold a prominent position in your record collections then you should not really be put off. The challenge that this band faced was to record classic-sounding fist-pumping compositions in keeping with genre, but to come across as both unique and memorable. Was this exercise successful? The answer is – partly!

These lads have a very honest approach to performing Heavy Metal – this is clear in the opening track “Metal Woman” – a song filled with catchy riffs and Maiden-esque twin guitar melodies. “My Sword Will Not Sleep” is a similar but somewhat less inspiring offering while the much faster “Leather Lord” features some Accept-sounding fist-pumping riffs but it somehow lacks coherence as a result of various combining ideas.

The album’s most impressive section starts with the harmonic guitar and flute-infused (!) instrumental “Chief An The Blade” and continues with the Omen-inspired opus “Dark Messenger” – a four minute piece that will give your neck a good stretch. More up-tempo but equally classic-sounding, “Lock Out” brings out many Anvil elements, but by the time the first tunes of “4000 Torches” are introduced the momentum has been somewhat lost.

The galloping drums and band vocals on “Leave It On Ice” find the band perhaps subconsciously flirting with Thrash Metal but things are soon back to normal with “Die For Gold (Upon The Boiling Sea IV)”. The quality of the Running Wild sounding riffs of “Storming Juno” is enough to deserve particular attention and the fairly epic “Men Of Fortune” could have been similar, had it not been for an appalling Euro-Power theme that was added in its otherwise powerful refrain, leaving another harmonic guitar instrumental, namely “One For The Ditch”, to pick up the pieces and try to close this album on a positive note.

As a person whose musical education owes much to classic Heavy Metal outfits such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Saxon, I found it very easy to connect to an album as classic –sounding as “Long Live Heavy Metal”.

The guys from 3 Inches Of Blood live and breathe all things classic Metal and they are not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves and when they create their compositions they do so in a passionate and skilful way. The main problem with this album is that the gap that separates the good from the average compositions is wide and it therefore lacks coherence, however, if you are in a mood for fist-pumping riffs and sing-along choruses then you ought to consider this offering.

John Stefanis

Rating: ***1/2 (3.5/5.0)

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