After six studio albums mixing traditional and Euro power metal I was hoping the new album “War of Dragons” would have followed suit. Maybe showed more growth towards the 80s Iron Maiden route – memorable riffs, variety in tempo and rhythm, twin leads, solos, etc. But, unfortunately, Bloodbound have made a turn for the worse into Rhapsody and Sabaton worship. ‘Battle In The Sky’ may have stronger guitars than what the Italians usually include in their mix but still the rampaging rhythm, leads, and keyboards are borderline plagiarism.

It’s worse for ‘Tears Of A Dragonheart’ and those opening gang vocals and chugging rhythm. I mean common, that is so Sabaton’s thing. The title track could be a lost Hammerfall song, and Silver Wings’ sounds too much like a Nightwish song during the chorus. They would have been much better off going with the rhythm and riffing for the verses which is more traditional heavy metal.

Bloodbound are better for the present and future of Heavy Metal when they stick to going the traditional Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Manowar, Dio route and preserving that sound. Hold off on the keyboards (use them sparingly), stick to riff and a catchy chorus – ‘In The Name Of Metal’, ‘Book Of The Dead’, the gallop to ‘Nosferatu’, ‘Moria’, ‘Reflections Of Evil’, even the influence of Gamma Ray on a ‘Metal Monster’, or Edguy on ‘When the Kingdom Will Fall’ is fine. These guys have other templates of metal to write songs within, “War of Dragons” is not one of them.