Fire Up the Blades

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, à 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, à la Eddie or Vic Rattlehead. [The CD was also released with a bonus track.]