An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood

One needs to live up to a reputation with a band name and album title like this (not to mention the song titles, which make early Carcass' seem like tales of fluffy bunnies), so it's only appropriate that the first minute of An Epiphanic Vomiting of Blood includes huge blasts of electronic distortion, bass-heavy riffs sludging downwards, and wailing singing that could be screams of pain, slightly modulated. It all spells entertainment, of course. The band's second formal album, not counting a variety of limited handmade releases, provides a fantastic inversion on the idea of metal going opera, which any number of groups have been happy to do over recent years: imagining how Dragonforce's fan base might react to these characters is a pleasing mental image. With the vocal keening kept in the background, along with the portentous swells of strings, while the blasting heavy drone of the feedback takes to the fore, not to mention what sounds like the clanking of chains in hell, at least on songs like "Teeth That Leer Like Open Graves." If anything, it's proof that metal bands are just as likely to cite Load Records as Iron Maiden these days. Often, things seem to be fully careening out of control — no bad thing, but it makes songs hard to hum — but then there'll be some sort of Wagnerian surge, as on "Sawn Asunder and Left for the Beasts" or "And There Will Be More of Your Children Dead Tomorrow" that turns it all into a massive tension release.