Fire Up the Blades in Bloomington, MN

You get the feeling that if the members of
Three Inches of Blood
could somehow befriend
Dr. Emmett Brown
, and acquire a Flux Capacitor and a vintage DeLorean, their preferred destination would be straight back to the 1980s. After all, their releases thus far have sounded like direct descendents of '80s era
metal
--
Mercyful Fate
/
King Diamond
,
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Slayer
, etc. -- and they've inched even closer to reconstructing the perfect '80s metallic beast with their 2007 release
Fire Up the Blades
. Produced by
Slipknot
's
Joey Jordison
, the album sounds like a conglomeration of all of the group's aforementioned influences (with an extra added focus on
Rob Halford
-esque shrieking vocals, a la
"The Sentinel"
and
"Painkiller"
), as evidenced by such thrashers as
"Night Marauders,"
"Trial of Champions,"
"Demon's Blade."
If you're looking for a fair amount of variety and sonic experimentation, you've come to the wrong place -- it's a thrash-fest pretty much from start to finish. The only thing missing from
is a suitable undead mascot on the album cover, a la Eddie or Vic Rattlehead. [The CD was also released with a bonus track.] ~ Greg Prato