 
Canadian heavy metal act 3 Inches of Blood have
had a lineup change for every single album they
have released over their long spanning 11 year
career; it’s finally got to the point where
there are absolutely no original members left
in the band as of 2002, unless you count Cam Pipes
who joined just prior to the release of their
first album “Battlecry Under a Winter Sun”,
he and Jamie Hooper’s vocals were one of
the main reason’s my interest in the band
has lasted this long, but prior to the release
of the previous album “Here Awaits Thy Doom”
Hooper left the band leaving Pipes as the sole
vocalist for the band. With yet more lineup changes
on this album leading off from an album that in
my personal opinion was possibly the blandest,
most boring album in the bands back catalogue
trailing far behind my all time favourite “Advance
and Vanquish” can the lads recapture the
magic or are they destine to descend further on
the downward spiral?
Now I’ve had my rant the band has just stuck
a big middle finger in my face as this record
is right up there taking the best elements from
all of their previous albums and using that to
create a range of varied material injecting heavier
parts and the more technical abilities of the
musicians all in one little package. I have to
admit it’s something I wasn’t ready
for, I wasn’t expecting this album to be,
well what it is which is freakin’ amazing.
“Dark messenger” starts out with a
folksy acoustic intro before launching into this
drop dead heavy mesh of lightly distorted chord
sequences, dotted around this though are some
really slick riffs and licks so subtly placed
that if you’re not paying attention you
may miss. “Leather Lord” is the high
octane side to 3IOB that everyone has grown up
with but with an exceptionally sinister twist
to it, deep growls at various points, heavier
distortion and a much unexpected breakdown towards
the end.
The thing that’s made this such a successful
triumphant return to form is they’ve gone
back to the drawing board because at 1 time they
were quite the formidable popular metal act at
one point in time, after “Fire Up The Blades”
though the band were fading away with “Here
Awaits Thy Doom” not really helping the
bands case but then this took their really warrior
themed metal to the next level and really brought
the metal, songs like “4000 Torches”,
“Leave It On The Ice” and “Men
of Fortune” absolutely kill it with every
listen, without raping power chords and breakdowns
and instead playing around with tone and depth
in the form of riffs, licks and ranged vocal lines.
What is needed now is a case of high profile supporting
tours and a hell of a lot of international promotion
to regain the recognition the band lost a few
years ago, but I have good faith it will happen
plainly due to the record being as strong as it
is that the band will rise again and if the material
continues to flow will manage to keep their career
on track for a while longer, even if I feel that
this kind of music is on the downfall in terms
of popularity, only time will tell!
4/5
Review by James Webb
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