I must confess it was the artwork which initially attracted my attention, followed by reading the press release and discovering that the band have been around since 1994 and is basically just one person, J.R. Preston. The man is obviously a workaholic as not only did he produce, mix and engineer this he also provided vocals, guitar, bass, synth, keyboard, organ, and drums. According to him this is music from a unique genre, Redneck Black Metal, which he has created by blending Southern Rock, Blues, and Country/Western with black metal. I guess the only question we have to ask is are we supposed to take this seriously, or is it a parody?

Mostly the jury is out, but the keyboard sounds on the likes of “I’ll Never Go Away” makes one think it may indeed be the latter. He has a broad range, spending quite a lot of time in falsetto, but one of the problems is much of the music and songs just sounds really quite basic. It has none of the threat or menace one would expect from Black Metal and instead comes across as one of the NWOBHM who were trying things out more than 40 years ago before Venom even gave the genre a name. Black Widow are possibly an influence here and there, but that is more occult than Black Metal, and the result is something which may purport to be threatening but is rather quite middle of the road metal which is pleasant to listen to but nothing stronger than that and certainly not something I would plan to ever play again. I can imagine people buying this if they see the band at a pub gig and want to repeat the experience, but I am not sure if they even play live given for recording purposes, they are a one-man band.

Rating: 5/10

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/bloodcult
https://witchesbrew.eu/en