3 years prior to releasing Raping The Ancient, Bloodaxe produced their debut Bloodthrone. Again the same formula is present, but a little more extreme perhaps. Allow me to clarify what I mean by that. Production-wise Bloodthrone is a lot rawer than Raping The Ancient. Amidst the distorted sound we hear the typical Bloodaxe whirlwind riffs that are highly effective and create that cold atmosphere perfectly, something which a lot of second wave band have tried to achieve. Vocals are again completely distorted, making them sound like someone who is lost in a destructive, cold blizzard. Bloodthrone is a lot blast heavier than Raping The Ancient. This is in fact an album that basically blasts away from beginning to end. It's true that the drumming isn't very inspirational and technically interesting, but all of that has been sacrificed to enhance the cold atmosphere that is present on Bloodthrone. Besides the occasional acoustic parts, there's only one song 1030 that doesn't blast away all the time, but still manages to have that freezingly cold ambiance. I feel the acoustic parts (they only appear twice on Bloodthrone) don't add much, instead I feel they make the entire concept and atmosphere on this album less consistent, than I would have perhaps liked. Despite this small point of criticsm Bloodaxe have again released an album that should appeal to all second wave supporters and those who are looking for an atmosphere similar to Pure Holocaust. Cold, freezing and frostbitten!
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