21. February 2025
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Media Review

Blood Opera – Songs in the Key of Death

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Blood Opera - Songs in the Key of Death

Blood Opera - Songs in the Key of Death
3.7

Rating

 3.7/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • A big touch of Lordi
  • Nice atmosphere
  • Some decent songs

I love the Finnish monster hard rockers Lordi. Thus, I just had an immediate crush when I ran into the new album by the dead metal / zombie glam rock band Blood Opera. On 24th February 2024 (Saturday, indeed…), they share Songs in the Key of Death with the world of hard rock and metal fans – let’s have a deeper listen into their new music.

 

Blood Opera – About The Artists

The press kit to the album release states a quote from a Blood Opera concert review: Toronto’s very own, Blood Opera primed the audience for the forthcoming onslaught. According to the same source, the four band members were born in blood, conceived in hell, reanimated by accident. Namely, the band lineup consists of lead singer Max Murder, guitarist RIP Junk, bassist Damien Deathgasm and drummer Muerto McBrains. However, Songs in the Key of Death, which is the band’s debut album, makes use of several guest musicians.

 

Blood Opera – Songs in the Key of Death – Track by Track

The 14 track album lasts 45 minutes.

1. Just Keep Digging

This one minute intro track simply makes me smile. It iis so Lordi-alike. One of the gruesome metal bands of all times have taken the only copy of their only album ever with them in their grave. And two guys digging it out. What the hell could happen?

2. Feeding Frenzy

This song is not only the first “full” song, but also the first one featuring guest musicians. Here, for example, the Canadians added vocalist Morgan Lander (Kittie) and Linnea Quigley (The Return of the Living Dead) to their recording line-up. This leads to a nice dialog-style part on the vocal side. A touch of death metal in this uptempo track.

3. Don’t Go Out Tonight

Several songs of the album are inspired by movies. Don’t Go Out Tonight, for example, has been based on Maniac. The song is a slightly slowly, more melodic song with a nice flow. The chorus also offers to shout with the band – how could that be wrong?

4. Fight to Survive

This song features a voice-over by Michael Berryman, who has been part of The Hills Have Eyes or X-Files. Again, the song is not as hard and rough as Freeding Frenzy, but therefor, it comes with a very relatable rock melody. A nice touch of hair metal on this album.

5. A Waste of Good Suffering

According the press kit, the fifth track comes with a touch of Iron Maiden sound. Not sure if Bruce Dickinson (who is about to release a new album soon as well) would agree to that. At least, these monsters have quite a bunch of self-confidence. And it is indeed fun listening to their music nice one.

6. The Gates of Hell

For this single release, Blood Opera invited keyboarder Maurizio Guarini from Goblin as a guest musician. The epic five minute song has a very hymnic sound, even though the machine gun-alike drumming is adding another rather dramatic feature to the listen. The track is inspired by the movie with the same title.

7. Breaking News

A touch of Lordi’s SCG – this intermission is a news show snippet, which is warning the citizens from a cruel metal band who is tormenting the city… And of course, these guys enter the studio right at the end of the one minute interlude.

8. Killer Klowns From Outer Space

These 4:19 minutes are in focus of The Dickies, who originally wrote the song used in the same-named moved. Songs in the Key of Death stays scary, but it is also very straight. Fascinating listen.

9. The Ballad of Father Malone

A massive organ-alike theme opens The Ballad of Father Malone. I guess that you already know that this ballad is not too romantic. There might solely be the kiss of death around. Very impressing dramatic track. I like it!

10. Brundlefly

A touch of sci-fi metal and punk metal just cannot be denied in regards of Brundlefly. The tenth track of the album does not only make use of several electronic sounds, but also adds quite an interesting new atmosphere to the album. I have to state, though, that I feel that other songs on the album are more catchy to me.

11. Damien

The 5:11 minute song Damien is the longest one on the whole album. The song makes use of that time, kicking off with a majestic Gregorian style inrto. However, the atmosphere gets darker and more mysterious and Damien turns into a shocking metal song. Nice.

12. Be My Victim (bonus track)

The twelfth track is marked as a bonus one as it was originally released as a single in 2022 already. The song has a nice rock attitude and feels rather melodic. However, the recording lineup of Blood Opera has changed in the meantime.

13. The Band of the Living Dead

The album closes with two atmospheric track. Is the band of the living dead really dead? Find it out in here.

14. The Key of Death

The two final snippets might have been better fits as interlude tracks – this is at least how I feel about them.

 

Blood Opera – Songs in the Key of Death – Spotify

Here is the album on Spotify:

 

Blood Opera – Songs in the Key of Death – My View

There is just so much Lordi in this album. I am not sure if I always fully appreciate it. Songs in the Key of Death is a nice listen, but does not work out as well as the best albums of the Scandinavian scary metalheads. Nonetheless, Blood Opera made me smile.

Favorite Song: Don’t Go Out Toniight

 

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