Promethium: Bleeding The Ghost

Album number 5 finds UK metal outfit Promethium adding a spooky edge to their riff totting, but often mid-paced, machinations. With a new frontman, James Candlin, delivering the band’s message, there’s a feel that Bleeding The Ghost is a release that draws lines in the sand and steps boldly out on its own merits. In terms of sound, this quintet add an interesting twist to the tried and tested, their almost NWOBHM base given a less retro feel, with similarities to the likes of Disturbed often felt in the riff structures, vocal melodies and overall sound.

Credit to guitarist Daniel Lovett-Horn, the six-string man’s production biting and urgent without making your ears scream, the separation between band members - included Lovett-Horn and his guitar partner Andy Hawthorn - cleverly achieved. To make things truly hit home volume is required but in this arena that’s exactly how it should be, the Iron Maiden like gallop of “Knives Out� romping home with real confidence, but again, when the vocals come in, the focus is given and interesting reset, allowing this band to sound like many others and yet no one else in particular - a welcome trick indeed.

Admittedly, even with the experience of time and the ability to wrap differing starting points into cohesive tracks, it would be a stretch to suggest that there’s anything going on here that you haven’t heard before. However, with the title track and “Murder She Wrote� (apparently not an ode to TV detectives everywhere - unless they are suggesting Jessica Fletcher ended every one of the victims on Murder She Wrote… surely not???) catchy, memorable and full of energy, it doesn’t really slow the momentum too much.

I can’t help but think that to truly break into the big-time Promethium need to take just one more step up in terms of making their songs stand out from the crowd. That said, Bleeding The Ghost is still a whole lot of horns in the air fun and I’m guessing these songs will come into their own in true style in the live arena.

Track Listing
1. Goat
2. Bleeding the Ghost
3. Priest 
4. Murder She Wrote 
5. Healing Your Sin 
6. Knives Out
7. Manhattan 
8. Catfish
9. Snakebite
10. My Fate

Added: April 5th 2024
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Promethium online
Hits: 470
Language: english

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