Album Reviews : Bonded By Blood – Exiled To Earth

Latino-American five piece Bonded By Blood were once touted as one of the forerunners of the so called ‘thrash revival’ scene, and while the wave of bands channelling the classic Bay Area Thrash sound has somewhat declined, Bonded By Blood carry on regardless with their sophomore album, “Exiled To Earth”.

With a plot line that sounds like a movie Arnold Schwarzenegger would have done back in the late 80’s, “Exiled To Earth” is a concept album set 600 years in the future and is basically about aliens conquering Earth and humanities fight for survival. Of course whether the storyline is clever or lame is in the eye (ear?) of the beholder, but it’s good to see the band branching out lyrically as opposed to the fairly stock standard themes on their previous album “Feed The Beast”.

Rampaging opener “600 A.B. (After The Bomb)” is a Slayer-esque thrash-fest, while the more groove laden follower “Episodes Of Aggression” wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Sepultura’s “Chaos A.D” record. While the album’s production is strong, the heavily reverberated vocals and snare drum takes away some of the attack, meanwhile frontman’s Jose Barrales’ vocals become incredibly repetitive as the album progresses and the flat gang vocals add nothing to the songs. The star of the album, however, is lead guitarist Alex Lee, with his solos combining furious shred passages with more eastern-feel melodic licks, such as the lengthy lead break in “Prototype: Death Machine” and the whammy bar abuse on “Genetic Encryption”.

Bonded By Blood definitely aren’t here to re-invent the wheel, with their main task seeming to be to bring back the classic thrash sound – and while they’ve definitely succeeded with “Exiled To Earth”, the record itself is fairly dull and uninspiring and featuring only a few moments where Bonded By Blood conjure up the same level of aggression and vitality of the Thrash legends they’re trying so hard to emulate. 6/10

Band: Bonded By Blood
Album: Exiled To Earth
Year: 2010
Genre: Thrash Metal
Origin: California, USA
Label: Earache Records/Riot!
www.myspace.com/bondedbyblood

Track listing:
1. 600 A.B. (After The Bomb)
2. Episodes Of Aggression
3. Prototype: Death Machine <-Reviewers Choice
4. Prison Planet
5. Genetic Encryption
6. Blood Spilled Offerings <- Reviewers Choice
7. Exiled To Earth
8. Parasitic Infection
9. Desolate Future
10. Sector 87
11. Cross-Insemination