Lord Vampyr The Greatest Bloodbath CD Review
Originally finding their soil in 2005 as Shadowsreign, Lord Vampyr and company released a full-length album entitled ‘Bloodcity (The Forgotten Memories Part 1) before welcoming the sun’s embrace in 2008. However, that would not end the bloodlust of the insatiable Lord Vampyr as he had been releasing albums as a solo project also dating back to 2005, which eventually turned into a full-time band. And since that time, he has released seven albums, including his most recent, ‘The Greatest Bloodbath’.
Essentially, ‘The Greatest Bloodbath’ is broken up into two unique sections. The first half of the album is a brutally beautiful and bloody serenade of gothic symphonic black metal in the vein of early Cradle of Filth, Old Man’s Child and Order of Nosferat. “Carmilla’s Awakening”, “Black Emperor” and “Garden of Eyes” really encompass everything I want. They are well composed and give me everything I’m looking for - darkness, depth and a mesmerizing plunge into despair. I wish more were akin to this and while other tracks like “The Ripper” and the title track give me a taste of that, I want more. The second half of the album features more operatic offerings that have a heavy reliance on instrumentation, specially keyboards which set up an eerily beautiful environment. The songs also go from having English titles to Italian ones. “Veglia Funebre Preso Per Mano Dalla Morte” is probably my favorite as it is reminiscent of the Phantasm theme song. Truly, these efforts are great on their own merit, but I start losing a bit of interest at this point, especially after being offered up some truly great symphonic black metal.
This is a mixed bag for me because every element is executed so well, but it just feels a little disjointed. It’s hard for me to be so into some of the (metal) songs and then the next thing you’re listening to sounds like it could have been heard in the background of an episode of Dark Shadows. And that’s not an insult. It’s me being confused by the juxtaposition.
~TJ