CoC : Mystica - Blinded By My Blood : Review

Mystica - _Blinded By My Blood_
(Painkiller, 2001)
by: Alvin Wee (7 out of 10)

This is another one of those albums that leaves you undecided: despite the solid musical expertise and enjoyable songwriting, there's little from the album that really sticks with you. That aside, _BBMB_ could well be the soundtrack to today's scene, attempting to meld Gothenburg death with traditional black metal, and only occasionally ending up sounding like a poor man's Immortal. Typical of many newer acts these days, with a melodic black/death hybrid so prosaic it's hard to describe. Still, it isn't a bad album, with the blazing leads on cuts like "Illusion" and the title track emphasizing the band's creative and musical wizardry. For what might be described as the new Swedish sound, Mystica do pretty well considering the territory's been pretty much covered by almost every other band these days, and is still a nice break from all that messy underground stuff creeping around. Even so, this isn't interesting enough for me, and labels should start taking the hint that crunchy guitars and Kris Verwimp artwork don't necessarily make a money-pulling album. Oh, and Painkiller is up to its usual tricks by putting the album out on four formats again...

Contact: painkiller@infonie.be

(article published 12/8/2001)