CD review, May 09. Blackguard - Profugus Mortis (Nuclear Blast)

First thing I thought when I heard Blackguard was ‘Children of Bodom’. From what I can remember, and it’s fairly accurate, this is a flute and beer embellished version of what Bodom were expertly doing years ago. I was even more surprised to find that these guys aren’t from Finland or some other ethereally leaning mystical land, but Montreal! So what is it that we have here? Well it’s basically very well played melodic thrash with lashings of very high pitched keyboards sprinkled through almost every second of music. The guitar noodling, or ‘shredding’ continues throughout and finally the semi-metalcore/black metal vocals layer over the top. To be frank, it’s not my thing. It speeds along yet goes nowhere in particular. While the band often thrashes confidently the keyboards and flutes just ruin it for me, it just reminds me of Abba, wizards and supposedly ironic comedy Metal bands. Don’t get me wrong, I like old Manowar, but this is too much for me. The legions of melodic death and folk-metal fans will lap it up, but personally I find it painful.