Tears Of Blood

This is what I call a pleasant announced surprise. Black Symphony is back after their excellent first album, Black Symphony released in 1998. This time Black Symphony cannot plays on the "surprise-effect" as their first record get a big applause from all over Europe. Yes somehow Black Symphony was under pressure for Tears Of Blood ... and great bands always delivers great records when the pressure start to build on them. So what ? Tears Of Blood is not that far away from the masterpiece album. Influenced by bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, old Metallica & Pink Floyd, this band reminds me very much Evergrey. However, they have totally digested their influences and Black Symphony can be proud to have now their own style. The only bad news here is the replacement of their singer. Even though Rick Plester (guitar) said "We needed another dimension for the vocals", I think previous singer got all it taste ... but this is just my point of view of course. So what shall you expect from Tears Of Blood ? Well, first of all I consider Tears Of Blood as a concept-album about religions. Lyrics, which are excellent, highlight the wars between humans who like different Gods ... but in fact, this is the "perfect justification" for their crimes. As said, very interesting lyrics as I start to be "feed up" with warriors & dragons. Musically, it is a melpot of Black Sabbath, Metallica and Pink Floyd : heavy, melodic and sometimes "depressive". The "fist in the face" comes from the production, which is really powerful, and from all these sounds used by the band to create another dimension inside each song. Hummm .... I would not be surprised at all if these guys listen to the last Rammstein album. Songs like Tears Of Blood I & II, Death, Take Me Down or I Am Hate are based on complex song-writing, but are easily accessible for the listener. Well in two words, this band knows how to sound really heavy and melodic at the same time. I don't like to take "high bet", but I have a strange feeling Black Symphony is about to become big, very big. A must have as this one will be on my list as surprise of the year. Last but not least, Tears Of Blood comes also as a limited edition (bonus discs containing 4 covesongs, including Smoke On The Water from Deep Purple). Who said Christmas was over ?