Krisiun has been described as the masters of ultra-fast death metal and other such publicity nonsense, and I find myself wondering what exactly makes them ultra-fast. Don’t get me wrong – they’re definitely ultra-something, and death metal, too, but at least on this short album/EP thingie, which combines very old tracks with a handful of new songs, they consistently avoid furious grindcore tempos and favor groovy, medium-to-fast-paced death metal riffing. In fact, Krisiun reminds me of what Sepultura might sound like if they played death metal instead of thrash, something that may or may not have anything to do with the two bands’ Brazilian origin.

While I usually hurl most brutal death metal CDs as far as I can without any remorse, I found Bloodshed to be pretty entertaining. For starters, the album doesn’t have that terrible scooped-midrange-recorded-in-a-tunnel guitar sound so many death metal bands seem to favor (even the fan favorite Immolation, who should know better), and the vocals on the new songs don’t evoke images of very large pachyderms engaged in some satanic mating ritual on a river bank. Instead, Krisiun delivers fairly memorable and somewhat varied death metal that’s actually fun to listen to, with groovy mid-tempos and deliciously nasty vocals.

The reissued tracks off their 1993 first EP towards the end of this collection are much less to my liking, as they exhibit the typical orgy-of-hogs death metal sound with very little to distinguish it from other bestial musical porn, but I understand they should have some appeal to Krisiun fans, as that 1993 EP isn’t exactly available at your local Wal-Mart. So if you or someone you know likes their metal deathy and won’t mind some midrange in their frequency spectrum, get them this mid-priced, fan-pleasing collection. It’ll make them happy as a pig in mud.

Review by Rog The Frog Billerey-Mosier

Review date: 01/2005

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