3 INCHES OF BLOOD – Fire Up The Blades

This is 3 Inches Of Blood, out of Vancouver, USA third full length, and their second for legendary label Roadrunner Records. 3 Inches Of Blood has many ingredients within their recipe to make for a musically speaking great Metal band: often fast-paced and quite aggressive, but the melody sense and tempo change dynamics, along with enough good song writing ideas, warrant enough variation to keep up the listener’s interest. They even have song titles such as ”Night Marauders”, ”Forest King” and ”The Hydra’s Teeth” which only cements the Metal charm which they display within their fantasy-based lyrics, so tongue-in-cheek, the band has often been suspected as a novelty act.

Sure enough, like most bands in these times of ”been there, heard that” they are not truly original in their recipe. Perhaps therefore, like some bands, they’ve tried to add something to separate itself within the genre in which they indulge, thus the inclusion of two lead vocalists within their ranks. Despite this, neither Cam Pipes nor Jamie Hooper contributes nothing but screaming to the band’s sound. One is a shrieker, the other is a growler and, inevitably, it gets on your nerves after a while. Rather often you come across bands where the vocals derive from a band’s likeability, but in this case the vocals become not only absolutely ridiculous, but also seem out of place on numerous occasions. The songs, which are often relatively short and snappy, cry out for more richness where the vocals are concerned. Shouldn’t it be possible to find at least one melodic and personal voice that still adds an aggressive stance?

Because of the total lack of melody where vocals are concerned, possible strong songs such as ”Demon’s Blade” and the, comparably speaking, slower ”Nocturnal Command” suffer from lack of catchiness that memorable vocal ideas could had otherwise brought to the table. Whereas ”The Goatriders Horde” and ”Great Hall of Feasting” showcase good arrangement ideas, a track like ”Infinite Legions” offer nothing of specific interest in any aspect, but in most cases its genuinely hard to tell just how much of the band’s lack of memorable moments is because of the vocal issue or lack of hooks within the otherwise strong enough individual song ideas.

As it is, 3 Inches Of Blood doesn’t come close to being as memorable as they could have been and you find yourself enjoying the sparse instrumental parts available on Fire Up The Blades where the overall strong material and often tasty guitar work can take a breather from the irritating, sorry excuses of vocals. 3 Inches Of Blood are good for some songs, straight at a time, but man, do they ever wear out their welcome, and fast. A shame, really, for what has (or had) the potential to be a really good Metal band.