Fire Up the Blades

AMG Review of Fire Up the Blades

Greg Prato
All Music Guide

You get the feeling that if the members of Three Inches of Blood could somehow befriend Dr. Emmett Brown, and acquire a Flux Capacitor and a vintage DeLorean, their preferred destination would be straight back to the 1980s. After all, their releases thus far have sounded like direct descendents of '80s era metal -- Mercyful Fate/King Diamond, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, etc. -- and they've inched even closer to reconstructing the perfect '80s metallic beast with their 2007 release Fire Up the Blades. Produced by Slipknot's Joey Jordison, the album sounds like a conglomeration of all of the group's aforementioned influences (with an extra added focus on Rob Halford-esque shrieking vocals, ŕ la "The Sentinel" and "Painkiller"), as evidenced by such thrashers as "Night Marauders," "Trial of Champions," and "Demon's Blade." If you're looking for a fair amount of variety and sonic experimentation, you've come to the wrong place -- it's a thrash-fest pretty much from start to finish. The only thing missing from Fire Up the Blades is a suitable undead mascot on the album cover, ŕ la Eddie or Vic Rattlehead. [The CD was also released with a bonus track.]