LITTLE DEAD BERTHA „Way Of Blind”

Music: Black / Thrash Metal
Website: www.bertha-music.narod.ru
Country: Russia
Duration: 52:15
Cool songs: Without Hope, My Evil Wish, Force And Brave

Little Dead Bertha is a Russian band that has been around in various forms since the mid-90's. They seem to have changed musical styles as much as they've changed band members and “Way Of Blind” is their latest release and finds them in an awesome mix of Black Metal and Thrash. I would place them somewhere between Cradle Of Filth and Children Of Bodom with their sound, which is a good place to be because Black Metal today seems to have found more of an audience by mixing in good rhythm and melodies.

“Without Hope” starts out with synthesizers, giving it a Black feel from the onset, but the guitar riffs are extremely heavy and thrashy. The drums kick butt as well and the vocals are a more growling Death. This is an awesome mix. Black(ish) Metal with a driving rhythm. “Raven” brings even more thrashy weight. The keys and strings in the background sound like Russian Polka influences and the backing vocals sound like Cradle only much heavier. Kind of a Finntroll type mix. “I Don't Believe” is very Finntroll-like with it's folk metal flavor. The vocals switch between Black and Death with female backing, but I think they should be a little more dominant. They sometimes are almost drowned out by the heavy riffs from the guitars. The songs are long and the drumming is furious. “My Evil Wish” starts slow and atmospheric, but soon blasts into a driving, thrashy rhythm and furious drum kicking, keeping this onslaught afire. The leads are fast and the keys keep up as well. This is some awesome shiiiiaaatt!!!!!

“Last Way In Nowhere” slows it down for just a bit, switching from a slower plodding rhythm to an upbeat melody and back and forth and so on for over six minutes while “Force and Brave” weighs in next at over nine minutes. This my favorite track and is simply awesome. Starting with an echoing guitar lead and crashing into a heavy, steady rhythm. It picks up faster as it goes along with death vocals and drum kicking galore. It drives fast and furious with a few melancholy interludes, always smashing back to the driving force that is prevalent throughout the entire cd. The title track continues the onslaught and we end with “Requiem” which is a more doomish song from their past redone and finishes off, with driving force, this most awesome cd.

I just can't say enough good things about this album. It seems that Little Dead Bertha has finally found the right mix of sounds and styles and is expanding this new sound of melodic, rhythmic, heavy ass Black/Thrash/Death.

note: 7/10

Tracklist

1. Without Hope
2. Raven
3. I Don't Believe
4. My Evil Wish
5. Last Way In Nowhere
6. Force And Brave
7. Way Of Blind
8. Requiem

Line-up

Sergey Galushko – guitar
Dmitriy Zamaruev – vocal
Jury Sveshnikov – bass
Tatyana Vojtenko – keyboards
Svetlana Hodyakova – backing vocals
Dmitriy Paltsev – drums