Silence of Northern Hell

Before Blood Stain Child was said to sound like a clone of newer In Flames, they were said to sound like a clone of Children of Bodom. As someone who has loved the good majority of In Flames' works, I never minded the comparisons and went in with an open mind... Until I heard the music and realized that the comparisons were completely inaccurate, but I might've just loved them even more because of it. That was around two years ago, and up until now, I haven't listened to their debut album at all, save for bits of "Crimson Symphony" and "Requiem", which didn't leave me coming back for more. In fact, if it wasn't for the sake of reviewing all of Blood Stain Child's discography, I probably wouldn't listen to this for another two years, or even longer. It wasn't straight up melodeath at first, instead being more of symphonic power metal with screamed vocals. Seeing as how I absolutely love BSC and how I pretty much don't know a damn thing about Children of Bodom, I'm excited to see how this album fares.

Ryo's vocals are, to my surprise, not bad at all. I remember hearing bits of the album and being less than impressed. Some of that is because it dips down to the back of the mix at times (Not even sure how that passed quality control), and some of it is because of the lack of 'fullness' and range, the latter of which I feel is very important for a screamer to have. Unrelated as it may be, I feel like that's why many people hated Claudio Ravinale in Mind Tricks. For me, that lack of said 'fullness' and range just makes me yearn for Idolator and other works by the band which highlight Ryo. It's a small thing, but listen to the vocals in something like "Final Sky", then go back to this. As miniscule as it may be, I can't help but take notice. Still, I do quite enjoy his contribution here, and I hope I'm not minimizing that. If anything, I feel that his contributions in the final two tracks are the best on the album, which leaves me with a good impression in the end.

As for the guitarwork... Holy shit, it's pretty damn good. I don't think we've had anything quite as technical (Especially consistently) since Mystic Your Heart. While still very much being clearly power metal with higher notes, it feels completely authentic, which is more than I could say for anything from Epsilon to The Legend (Whose guitarworks' only redeeming qualities are the solos). While I'm not huge on power metal myself, I think Blood Stain Child does it quite well. And no, I haven't listened to much of Bodom, so I can't make all too many comparisons.

The drumming is good, nothing much to say there. Violator does a great job later on down the line, but there aren't really many standout moments here. I'd say his performance here never gets old or stale, as he never sticks to one style for too long, and that does go a long way, but there isn't all too much that really impresses me. In fact, I'd probably love it if the kit itself didn't sound so weak. As for the bass... Moving on, there's quite literally nothing to say here. I can't hear it at all.

The keyboards here are incredibly refreshing compared to the band's later discography. While my favorite applications of them will always be the bit I've heard of Mystic Your Heart (I'll listen to all of it soon enough, I swear) and Idolator, this is all fantastic. The more symphonic they sound, the more clearly fake it sounds, but it's honestly fine. I like it well enough, even in spite of that, though I don't care for the keys when they sound more trance/EDM on here, as rare as it is (It's pretty much only during a solo or two). It's a nitpick, since it's so infrequent, and I'm thankful for that. There's also such a wide variety of instrument sounds here, which goes to add a lot to the atmosphere of the album. "King of the Sacred Sword" is the embodiment of my praises in this paragraph, and I could listen to a full version of the symphonic intro if it was to ever magically exist. It reminds me of 90s-early 2000s JRPGs, and I love that so much. It's wonderful, and I wish we saw more of this in the band's discography, which wouldn't really happen until, surprisingly, their newest single, 2045.

The songwriting on this album is pretty much all on point. Funnily enough, the only small dips in quality I feel are in "Crimson Symphony" and "Requiem", which would both be the only tracks returning on The Legend, save for the title track here. If I was more into symphonic power metal, I'm sure I'd rate this higher. Then again, if I listened to more Bodom, I might just rate it lower. I don't really know how it would go either way, and I'm content with that. It's all really good, and it ends up being a nice take on such a western sound with their signature Japanese flair. It's not really something I can put into words, but I feel that Blood Stain Child has always had a refreshing take on the more western-dominated subgenres. Normally, this is the sort of thing that I wouldn't listen to much of again, and who knows, maybe I won't. But I get the feeling that I'll spin "Under the Sin of Grief", "Legend of Dark", and "King of the Sacred Sword" a few more times over the years to come. If it wasn't for the drums and bass sounding so underwhelming, I'm sure that I'd rate this album quite a bit higher. Even then, it's fantastic, and it really did surprise me. If 2045 showed that the band's adding glimmers of Silence to their modern sound, then I'm all for them keeping that direction up. I'll be hoping for that to be the case!

Tracks to Recommend: "Under the Sin of Grief", "Legend of Dark", and "King of the Sacred Sword"
Tracks to Avoid: N/A

As much as my tastes have changed over the past decade or so, I still find time for Blood Stain Child's early material. Nowadays I am embarrassed to admit I am a fan at all, I mean, just look at the band themselves. All dressed up like metal cosplay-warriors of the new millennium. Earlier on things were simpler, they were simply ganking Children of Bodom's sound circa Hatebreeder, with added orchestration and a dash of Ensiferum-style lead patterns. Silence of Northern Hell, while bombastic and pretentious, is thankfully anything but overlong, with just seven tracks to dig through. Let's get at it.

While latter albums such as Mozaiq seriously gutted the metal element to allow the trance soundscapes to take over, this release features a fairly impressive, crunching guitar sound. It isn't as powerful as on Mystic Your Heart but it is good for a debut. The leads are obviously flashy and impressive, but are actually mixed a bit too low for my taste. The title track features a nice solo interplay between the guitars and keyboards near the end, running exactly the same scales as Laiho and Wirman, and with some orchestra hits which are always a nice addition. In all honesty, at the time of this album's release, there couldn't have been a better band than Children of Bodom to draw inspiration from. The bass is so insignificant it is difficult for me to even dissect it's presence. I did notice an almost artificial buzzing-timbre to the bass tone when it did bleed through. Unusual choice.

Addressing the keys, Aki is a great soloist; using what I believe is a KORG X-5, he textures some pretty impressive orchestral arrangements. A style which the band would sadly drop after this release. Save for the solos, he sticks with an organic choice of keyboard voices, which really gives this album a Gauntlet Legends kind of sound at times. Sadly the clearly synthetic nature of the orchestra ends up being pretty difficult to hide. It sounds overtly fake, although from a certain point of view it becomes a style in and of itself. Ryo's vocals I can go either way on. It may be the mix, but his scream sounds like hes not even trying. He has a bit of a snarl but starts to lose it on some of the longer, more drawn out screams. It is unintentionally pretty humorous. The operatic female cleans were refreshing when they did appear, however. The lyrics suck the big one but I can forgive a band not writing in their native tongue to a degree. Violator is an adequate technician on the kit, with some decent crashing and thumping along with some blastbeats. The mix hurts the drums the most, however. The trigger used for the bass drum(s) sounds sterile and pacified as all hell.

I'm not sure if it was Daiki's departure in 2005 but the band really started to lose it with Idolator, their early material is worth checking out for anybody into melodic death/power metal with keys. Keys keys keys.

Blood Stain Child's early work, and this album in particular, is oft criticized as being a Children of Bodom derivative. I'm not exactly an expert in this subject, because... well, I hate Children of Bodom. However, even I can say this is not an unjustified criticism; this album reeks of Children of Bodom worship.

However, I might ask you to go play Hatebreeder then return. Done? Okay. Children of Bodom's music is saturated in keyboard glory, this we know. Now, turn on Silence of Northern Hell and... what's this? It sounds like a bloody orchestra!

That's the key difference between Children of Bodom and Blood Stain Child (in this album, namely); Bodom's music is deep with keyboard foreplay, but it's clearly keyboard. There's some various synth symphonies, but they don't do much other than add some atmosphere, barely even noticeable more often than not. This album mimics an entire orchestra, and to good effect I might add. The symphonies are well composed and tightly played - I could easily mistake this for a real orchestra, and they're not just for atmosphere. The orchestral elements dominate the album to the point that this could easily be classified as symphonic death metal. Blood Stain Child also differentiates itself from Bodom by flirting, though sparingly, with music reminiscent of their heritage... "Under the Sin of Grief" and "King of the Sacred Sword" play with oriental folk melodies to good effect.

That said, the songwriting and playing is all done in a very Bodom-esque manner. The way the guitar and keyboard flaunt themselves is so similar to Bodom that I could easily mistake this for a Bodom album, were it not for the emphasized symphonies.

My main problem is with the rhythm. The drum and bass can be forgotten, because... let's face it: they usually are, especially with melodic death metal. The riffs, however, are unforgivably bland, trite, and boring. The album can offer in sweet lead melodies and it's often drenched in sophisticated symphonies, but the rhythm is simply forgettable.

As such, it's songs that offer in juicy guitar leads that stand out the most. "Under the Sin of Grief" is the biggest highlight. The song has several awesome leads - the opening lead, recurrent through the song, is my favorite of the album. In contrast, songs such as "Silence of Northern Hell" and "Crimson Symphony" are drenched in orchestrations, but these guys forget that well done orchestrations requires a solid rhythm to back it up. With songs that actually contain some decent leads ("Requiem"), it becomes clear once the leads let up that the orchestration is carrying the song and the rhythm still sucks.

My other complaint is with these Godforsaken vocals. Yes, I hate Children of Bodom, and one reason is because of Alexi Laiho's terrible voice (though their terrible songcraft is still the largest reason)... and good grief, Ryo sounds exactly like him. He has no range to his scream, and sounds mostly the same through the entire damned album. Gah. This album would be so much better if they had more varied vocals in it, and it wouldn't be such blatant Bodom worship either. A good clean voice and a deep, gutteral growl to contrast Ryo's screaming... oh yes, that would've been quite majestic. Unfortunately, that is not the case, and the vocals are useless.

Overall, this is still a good album for what it is. If they'd managed a stronger rhythm, this would be really excellent and possibly even innovative for its time. The symphonies, fake as they may be, are really well done. Through the album, I never find them to be overbloated or boring. Unfortunately, the sophistication of the album is drug down to Hell by the rhythm just being "there." Damn, though, this is still about as good as anything Bodom ever did. The synthesizer is used far better at the very least.

Any album Blood Stain Child have made after 'Silence of Northern Hell' doesn't sound even close to their ambitious debut. The whole electronic side of their music is nowhere present here. No, this is only melodic death metal like Blood Stain Child thinks it should be. Therefore, it may sound a lot like other melodeath bands. Should this be a reason for lower ratings? I don't think so.

Many people think this release is nothing but a clone of older Children of Bodom albums like Something Wild and Hatebreeder. There are indeed a lot of moments where you might think 'This sounds an awful lot like CoB', but this style of melodic death metal is nonetheless very pleasant to listen to. The solos are extremely well performed, the keyboard bits give the whole release more depth, and the guitar and bass support it all perfectly. The drums might be a little out of rythm sometimes, but hardly enough to be annoying for the listener.

The vocalist doesn't really sound that much like Alexi Laiho, because his vocals are more raw, flirting with black metal shrieks. Sometimes you can find resemblance to Varg Vikernes' vocals on older releases as Aske and Det Som Engang Var. The female vocals could've been a lot better however. They often try to reach a pitch beyond their vocal range, but again not so much that one would be annoyed.

The lyrics are most likely the weakest spot in this release, e.g.:
It´s necessary to stay this land no more.
Now all of matter not and corrupt.
Our hymn is gotten wet in the rain everyday.
That never reaches the sky.
'Silence of Northern Hell'
Not very coherent, which is quite a pity. In fact, if this band would have made Japanese lyrics instead of English, it could've added a unique element that would make Silence of Norhern Hell less of a clone for the Hate Crew. But making English lyrics shows that this band would do anything to reach a big public. English is also very hard to learn for a Japanese person, since these languages have an entirely different offspring.

Although this album may not be something entirely original, we should not forget that CoB weren't the first melodeath band at all. Their style can be heard on various releases before Something Wild. Also, there are probably over a thousand bands in the Archives that sound like an exact Children of Bodom-clone, while some of them might have never heard of CoB before. Considering that Blood Stain Child are from Japan, where metal isn't exactly the national style of music, it's possible that they have copied a style without even knowing it, though the chance is very small.

For people who are new to melodeath, Silence of Norhern Hell is a well composed album full of ear-shredding riffs and jaw-dropping solos. Fans of early Children of Bodom will likely find appreciation in this release as well, if they're ok with a band 'cloning' an other band.

"Clone band." It's a phrase that is pretty much the kiss of death for any band seeking the approval/respect of the underground metal scene, regardless of how much success they may achieve over time. We've all probably seen, heard, or even used this phrase to describe a band, which is fine, except one of the problems is that calling a band a "clone band" causes one to overlook or negate any songwriting talent the band in question may possess.

Which brings us to Blood Stain Child's "Silence in Northern Hell." Anyone that has checked this band out recently knows that they at least started out as a complete Children of Bodom rip-off before finding their own unique style over time. So obviously, I had difficulty listening to this album without constantly comparing it to "Hatebreeder" or "Something Wild." I mean, this album honestly sounds like a collection of CoB songs that didn't quite make the cut, except the production quality isn't as strong, the band's playing is not nearly as tight, and overall the songs are nowhere near as good as Bodom's earlier stuff.

You could have read that anywhere, I know. However, despite being a somewhat naive and overly ambitious debut, anyone who listens to this album can tell that they were definitely hungry for success, and that they did indeed have the skills necessary to perhaps one day be a legitimately popular (or at least respected) metal band. With this debut, Blood Stain Child at the very least prove that they can play.

For example, both the guitar and keyboard solos that are featured throughout the album are very well-executed, and this is definitely the band's strongest characteristic (check out the title track, for instance). Even by watching the music video to the title track, it's obvious that the band possesses lots of energy and even bothered to write the lyrics in English, atrocious as they may be, to hopefully appeal to Western audiences (the only guy who doesn't look too into it in the video is the drummer, but maybe he's just trying to concentrate, who knows?).

However, despite the competent playing, this album is definitely flawed. The first thing I can think of is the problem with the lyrics. As I mentioned before, the lyrics are fairly ridiculous--

"War if twilight
Cursed of hell unholy night
Run after you
War of darkness
I play the crimson symphony"
-from "Crimson Symphony"

I know English is probably a second language for whoever wrote the lyrics, but c'mon...these guys are from Osaka! Surely they know SOMEONE who can translate their lyrics into something vaguely coherent, especially since the whole point of having English lyrics in the first place was to appeal to Europeans and Americans (they've confirmed this in numerous interviews). Hopefully by the next album they at least found a better translator (personally, I suspect the culprit for this album was Yahoo! Babel Fish...).

However, regarding the actual music, it's the drumming on the album that is definitely the band's weakest link, although in all honesty it isn't THAT bad-- it's just not on the same level of professionalism with the rest of the musicians in the group. Plenty of room for improvement. As for the vocals? Well, honestly what is there to say? He sounds just like the ol' Wildchild himself. While this approach may not be very original (which is a pretty big understatement, since this entire album borders on plagiarism), the band probably figured that it if you're going to emulate a band, you might as well go all the way.

Despite all of this, the point I'm making is that to simply label this band a "Children of Bodom clone" and nothing more does a great disservice to the band and all the hard work they put into this album. Blood Stain Child proved with "Silence in Northern Hell" that they could indeed kick some serious ass, although there was still clearly a lot of work to do as far as developing a unique style of their own. I haven't really listened to much of their more recent work, so I look forward to checking it out and seeing how this band has evolved.

Blood Stain Child play nearly the exact same stlye of metal made popular by Children of Bodom. That's right, exactly the same. Make a compilation of songs from this album and from COB's Something Wild, play it to someone who hasn't heard either band, and they won't know that it's 2 different bands.

Blood Stain Child shred, soar, rip and tear up the guitars, playing a fine mix of the power/speed metal style. They keyboards are also highly proficient, with many trade off solos between the guitars. The drumming is quick and aggressive, and the vocals have that harsh type of voice akin to that of Alexi Laiho. Great musicainship at least make this cd fun to listen too.

Alas, the songs sound so much like COB that unfortunately this cd has to be passed off as a clone. However, this does not make it downright boring, and if you enjoy COB, or Norther, then Blood Stain Child are very listenable.