Bloodbound
War Of Dragons

I admit it, I approached this work by Bloodbound with quite a lot of positive expectations, hoping that the Swedish band had finally understood their past mistakes and wouldn't repeat them. As a fan of the genre, I am perfectly aware that Power is one of the most challenging subgenres of metal when it comes to continuity, i.e., consistently producing high-quality albums over the years without falling into recycling or self-references. We've already seen several bands, perhaps too many, unable to maintain this continuity and falling into a vortex of expressive futility—Dragonforce, Firewind, Dream Evil, or the better-known Rhapsody Of Fire and Stratovarius, to name a few.

Speaking of the band reviewed here, Bloodbound is certainly not a surprise in the power field. Founded in 2004 by Fredrik Bergh and Tomas Olsson, this group had already showcased both their talent and their limitations in their debut album, "Tabula Rasa" (2009). Catchy songs, keyboards providing the backdrop, and a strong desire to entertain. Of the first two, something has remained over the years, but the third seems to have completely vanished by now. You know when you listen to an album for the first time and then think to yourself "Let me listen to it again; maybe there's something I missed." With Bloodbound, no. Listening to any album by the band once, you almost certainly won't feel the urge to listen to it a second time, whether it's the songs that stick in your head immediately or the excessive flaunting of the term already cloned by the mentioned Manowar, "true metal", Bloodbound have never wanted to backtrack, seeking to refresh their sound—a refresh that would have certainly been beneficial, as happened with Hammerfall in 2011 with "Infected."

And given the recent releases from Bloodbound, like the excellent "Stormborn" (2014), expecting an album not excellent but at least listenable was the minimum expectation. Before putting on the record, I knew I did not want to listen again to a clone of "In The Name Of Metal" (2011), with sounds and lyrics so simple and flashy they rival Manowar. I was already prepared to put the record up for sale on Ebay if I found one of these prerogatives.

I found it particularly difficult to listen to this new "War Of Dragons" in its entirety, primarily for one single reason—the devastating simplicity and banality of the songs. "Battle In The Sky" fails to surprise me, full of those annoying choruses that are supposed to give you goosebumps, make you feel invincible, but in reality, make you realize that maybe you've just spent 15 euros of your life in the most wrong way possible. "Silver Wings", although it has an interesting pre-chorus and build, loses everything in the chorus, which is perfectly identical to "White Masque" by Running Wild. Not even the overly pompous "Tears Of A Dragonheart" passes, where it's mainly the lyrics that make you roll your eyes. Unity, loyalty, friendship, group strength, swords, and princesses. We have in one song all the stereotypes that have contributed to defining Power as one of the most banal genres in the world. The good "Dragons Are Forever" earns a few points, revealing itself to be one of the very few interesting songs on the album, along with "Starfall", which boasts massive riffing followed by an excellent performance behind the drums. Tracks like "Stand And Fight" and "Fallen Heroes", on the other hand, do nothing but fuel the desire to turn everything off and go listen to something else, with the latter being yet another anthemic piece meant to be sung at the top of one's lungs with the audience.

All the expectations I had, therefore, have vanished. I can understand that, as stated at the beginning of the review, trying to compose an album of this kind is difficult, especially when everything has already been said and composed, but asking for an album that is at least listenable and entertaining is not, I think, an unreasonable request. I only hope that Bloodbound can recover and understand the enormous mistake they made with this release. Failed.