And so, the Copro label now also have a Dutch band on their roster! Although the band name may be relatively new to the scene, the band itself has been active in the Metal community since 1989 as Sacramental Sachem (4 demoes, and EP, a mini-CD, and a full-length can be credited to their activa), and the name change came at the beginning of 2002 after several line-up changes. On the strength of their previous reputation, tours with The Haunted, Darkane, and Arch Enemy followed, and the same year also a demo was recorded, which generated quite a bit of label interest. During 2003, one of the guitarists left, but the remaining members decided to go ahead and record an album's worth of material as a 4-some anyway, while also standing on the look-out for a new 2 nd guitarist. As it happened, recordings for the album were done in several phases during 2004, after which 10 songs were sent up to Denmark to be mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen (see also Invocator, Mercenary, Raunchy, Communic) in early 2005. Finally, in February '05, a new axeman was found in former Form (please excuse me for the pun) guitarist Danny Tunker, with whom singer Vital Wetten, guitarist/ backing singer Michiel Rutten, bassist Michel Steenbekkers, and drummer Norbert Moen readily jumped into the rehearsal room to prepare him for upcoming gigs.

Fuelblooded music, which is generally dubbed "Death-Thrash", is in reality quite diverse...goin' from full-trottle speedy Thrashers (listen to album opening "Art Of Life", or "Constructive Destruction", to slow and pounding Doom-Thrashing ("Dissector Of Souls"), over a melodic mid-tempo crusher like "Measure Swords", and not afraid to put an atmospheric shortie (title track) in the middle of the album (as opposed to using it as an album opener)! Vocally, things stay very much into the Thrash-Death corner with rough semi-screams...even the backing vocals are that way! But singer Vital also (very) occasionally cleans up his singing somewhat to fall under a more Thrash-oriented style. If you're looking for a taster, check out mp3 samples for 2 of the tracks on the band's website fuelblooded/com (you can also hear to samples of 3 songs off Sacramental Sachem's last outing, 2001's mini-CD "Anxiety"). You'll be able to make out very clearly, that these are very experienced musicians! Wonder what the addition of Danny's gonna do for the overall sound...

89/100

Tony.