Holy Blood is a band reigning from the cold and misty lands of Ukraine. The band started as a death/grind three piece in 1999. In 2000 three other members joined the band and their music slowly evolved into melodic death-metal. In 2002 they released their first full length album called The Wanderer. Especially in their own country they slowly started to gain interest from a lot of people. In the years that followed, their music slowly turned into the direction of folk/black-metal in the vein of Falkenbach. In 2005 they released their 2^nd full length album on the US based label Bombworks Records. Their 3^rd album called The Patriot was recently also released by Bombworks Records.

The last couple of years folk-metal evolved into a genre that really can stand on its own, with leading bands like Finntroll and Ensiferum. Like any other genre that gains a lot of popularity, there are always bands that hop on the folk-metal band wagon and try to copy the music. I can’t help thinking that when I listen to The Patriot, Holy Blood is such a band. They really try their best to make decent black/folk-metal, but somehow it stays stuck into mediocre chaotic flute infested black-metal. Lyric-wise this band has an outspoken Christian point of few as well, so Satanists/atheists might want to skip this.

The album opens with a pretty nice intro containing howling wind, crying wolves and a mystic sounding flute. After that, the album turns into a very chaotic album. The band tries to play mid-tempo black-metal, but they smeared the sound so full with other stuff like a keyboard, chanting background vocals, flute and other ethnic instruments, that it becomes one big chaotic, messy pulp. They have some good ideas though, like the sixth song called ‘Well Tried Faith’, which is a proper folk-metal song. Or the song ‘Blood Of Christ’, which sounds like an early Moonspell song. Still, most of the times this album is a loose projectile that goes in any direction it wants. It’s a chaotic, incoherent album.

Fans of bands like Falkenback, Ensiferum and perhaps the later Enslaved, might want to check out this band though. Oh, and the CD has a nice multimedia section as well, with video-clips, biography, discography, photos and more.