Premiere: Bloodletter – “The Last Tomb”
Hope you packed a grimoire.
For all the myriad ways metal has branched out over the years, for all its experimentation and evolution as transgressive art, the genre’s foundation has remained constant: Satan and wizards and riffs that make you go, “Hell yeah.” Those are the true unifying factors of metal, the things everyone can get behind regardless of all other preferences, and the only consistent metric by which to determine whether a band is good or not. Today, we’ve got a new tune for you from Chicago’s Bloodletter, a band that ticks all those boxes and then some.
If you’re not familiar, I’m giving you some homework after the premiere: go catch up on their older stuff. If you need the CliffsNotes version, Bloodletter’s take on the thrash is similar to Exmortus and the more melodic side of Warbringer. It’s slick and shreddy, touched up with dueling guitar melodeath sensibilities and stuffed with hooks. “The Last Tomb” exemplifies their style, channeling their instrumental sorcery into intense and triumphant runs with a bittersweet note that bespeaks the song’s arcane subject matter. From frontman and string-slinger Pete Carparelli:
This single is about a mighty sorcerer, once the most powerful in the land, who sacrifices himself to seal away a dark power. Even after death, his spirit lives on, fighting the darkness he was bound to contain.
In summation, that fucking rules. Jam “The Last Tomb” now and give me a hell yeah in the comments for sick wizard shit.