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Artist: TV BLOOD
Album: Astra
Year: 2009
Many good stuff lays behind the Russian border, and I am not talking about good Russian vodka. The native Russian industrial metal scene already brought us the wicked tunes of bands such as Headphone Killazz, Xe-None, Digimortal and Illidiance, and right now we have the new album of Kaliningrad based band TV Blood (Type V Blood) over here for a review. This Russian four-piece is active since 1999 and says to be influenced by bands such as Turmion Katilot, T3chn0ph0b1a and The Kovenant. After the release of their debut album 'Dead Generation 77' in 2001 and a promo EP in 2008, this is the group's second full-lenght.
The album opens with 'Digital Solstice'. It's a powerful industrial metal track with modern death metal and cyber metal influences. It comes with bashing drums, tight riffing and brutal vocal lines. 'Shine Red Crawler' comes to you like a wall of noise. It's a harsh mix of cyber metal and electro, with perfect sampling and straight forward riffing. The drums and the vocal lines are gentle, though wellfitting to the powerful attitude of the song. 'Electric Goth' mixes breakbeat and breakcore rhytms with future pop keylines and tight riffing. The diverse vocal lines contribute to the brutality of the track, which happens to be my favorite one of the release. 'Grub Master' opens with EBM sounds, and slowly evolves into a fast electro metal track hiding influences from out of the electro and techno corner. It comes with a danceable rhytm, techno/trance keylines and wellfitting riffs and vocals. 'MurdeRapeGenocide' switches from midtempo death metal influenced parts to wave and cyber metal, via bridges of ambient and electro. It's one of the more accessable and atmospheric tracks on the release. 'Astratech' mixes industrial metal with dark electro tunes and a cyberish approach. It's a hyperactively fast track, coming with atmospheric keylines and powerful riffing, vocal lines and drum rhytms. 'Yellow Violet Devil' is another bashing cyber metal track that hides electro influences. It comes with a fast drumbeat, tight repetative riffing and brutal vocal lines. 'Racekiller RocknRoll' comes with an EBM beat and keylines, accompanied by recogniseable riffing and distorted diverse vocal lines. It's one of the more danceable tracks on the release. 'Lets Rock' comes up next. It's a brutally fast cyber metal track coming with electro keylines, modern riffing and wellfitting vocal lines. Despite the uptempo attitude the song overall is quite accessable. 'Stonerhouse' offers us a mix of industrial death metal and cyber metal, with an experimental use of the guitars. The keylines and the drums form the spine of the song, and the guitars are taking care of the power level. 'Firebright Blue Eyes' is the most sensitive track of the release, coming with various guitar solos, cold keylines and sampling and gentle drumming. The clean vocal lines and the old school rhytms on the couplets fit the song surprisingly well. 'Blood Or Not To Blood' is an experimental wave track, switching from dark downtempo riffing parts to pure wave sampled parts. Despite the more accessable approach of the song it comes with hard edges as well. The release ends with 'Love Us Or Die'. It's again a more sensitive track, hiding wave and future pop touches within the keylines and cyber and industrial metal within the vocals, riffing and drums.
With 'Astra', TV Blood brings us another quality product out of Russia. They show pure quality when it comes to song writing and originality, and it only seems a matter of short time before this band spreads its wings to get more known outside Russia as well. I pressed the 'repeat' button on my CD player already, how about you?
Vote: 96 / 100
Review by: Gerardo
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1. Digital Solstice
2. Shine Red Crawler
3. Electric Goth
4. Grub Master
5. MurdeRapeGenocide
6. Astratech
7. Yellow Violet Devil
8. Racekiller RocknRoll
9. Lets Rock
10. Stonerhouse
11. Firebright Blue Eyes
12. Blood Or Not To Blood
13. Love Us Or Die
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