BLOODCROSS "Gravebound" CD (Personal Records 2024) BLOODCROSS are a Finnish heavy metal band formed in 2019 that rose from the ashes of black metallers Angelscourge and their lone album, Seraph Impaler. Based in Turku, BLOODCROSS cast their gaze wider to the past and draw inspiration from such old gods as Necrophobic, Gates of Ishtar, Dissection, and even Yngwie Malmsteen. BLOODCROSS' first release was the demo Abyssal Blood in 2021, which featured three ear-piercing songs. At that point, the band had not yet fully introduced their influences from power metal to their already lethal and bloody cocktail of blackened melodic thrash metal.However, that will all change with their full-length debut, Gravebound. Here, BLOODCROSS boldly broaden their musical expression to soundscapes that are catchier, more melodic, and somehow also crushing soundscapes. Insanely fast at times but exuding a palatable precision, Gravebound is technical and relentless but never forsakes the art of songwriting, remaining mesmerizingly memorable every step of the way, building epic towers of icy, majesty melody and ripping, burn-the-touch intensity. Coupled with the crisp & gleaming production, one could possibly mistake BLOODCROSS for a very young & hungry Children of Bodom, but the band's late '90s vibes extend further to such cult names as Ablaze My Sorrow, Swordmaster, Prophanity, and Raise Hell: in other words, this melodic black metal par excellence.Prepare for a new modern classic of meloBM with BLOODCROSS' Gravebound!
