CD Review by Subexistance magazine- (8/10)

So, after two and a half year, Blackdrawn has released (09.06.2015) their debut album which is titled “Blackdrawn” (self-titled), it is not a big deal to see an album being named after it’s band name and in a way it makes sense because it is their debut album. For those who don’t know, they are a Melodic Death Metal band from Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia – Greece. They are a crowd of six, Dimitris Traskas (vocals), J.Demian (guitars), Nick Voultsidis (guitars), John Patoukas (keys), George Kantzios (bass) and Michael Karamichalis (drums). The album is a spectacular piece of work consisting of 12 tracks, one of them is an instrumental. You can also get your hands on their 12 pages booklet featuring Petro Christo (Firewind) and artwork by Gustavo Sazes when you get the limited edition “Digipack” and I think the album art is amazing!

Facts aside, focusing on the musical aspects of the album, it starts off with an amazing instrumental “Vantablack ” which is undoubtedly, in my opinion, the perfect track to start the album and I got addicted to its burning melancholic nature from the minute I started listening to it. Track number two “Breathin’” kicks off with racing drum beats and Dimitris shows off his vocal skills by changing his vocal growl tones according to the depth of the lyrics. Moving on to the third track “Sound of Bleeding” is a fast-paced, guitar-driven piece of work which demonstrates its aggressive nature driven by tribal like drum beats, the bass is very audible and holds strong string presence. The growl syncs well with the instrumentals, Michael Karamichalis is one hell of a drummer in my opinion and the guitar, bass and drum work are absolutely awesome in this track. I’d listen to this just for the drum work. Firing up the fourth track in the album “Blackdrawn Skies” starts with a strong rhythm, and as the vocalist takes over the track it flows with catchy guitar riffs throughout while the musicians unleash all the violence they have inside them. I loved the keys accompanied by the touch of bass guitar strings, especially near the end of the track. This is my second favorite track from the album

Fifth track, “Deathmask” is a killer soundtrack for a cold blooded serial killer who goes berserk, lightning-fast fills and adroit bass controls the track, the guitar riffs and the killer drums towards the end of the track is brilliant. The vocals are point blank range style, they are really good in my opinion. Taking the sixth position on the album “Hearts Turning Black” starts with badass drum beats along with the heavy death metal riffing and keeps the intensity flowing till the end. Even though this track is an intense yet slow paced mixture, it has a melodic part to it, where it provides a great contrast to the other instrumental’s presence. This song has “Turn an angel into a demon” kind of feel to it. I enjoyed it very much. “Embracing Darkness” is such an awesome name for a title, positioned seventh in the album. The opening part gave a similar melody like that of the previous track, it involves fast paced vicious vocals, strong drums, penetrating guitar riffs.

Track number eight “What I Am” has a similar shower of guitar riffs like in the previous track, it possesses such clean guitar breaks while firing the machine gun like drum beats. This track has a lot of variations going on, the music switches into various pace with unique elements of instrumentals sprinkled all over. I can’t stress enough how important this sort of variation is for any band and I loved the back ground chorus accompanied machine gun drum beats and the well maintained throaty vocals. Track number nine “Scavengers” made me get into a head-bang routine, every time I came across this track I felt like a head banging freak and the lyrics got stuck on my head too. Track number ten “Undiminished” has a cool melodic opening and full of excellently executed riffs and fantastic vocal work. The drummer is freaking awesome on this track, if you are into sick death metal drum beats then you should totally check out this track. “Eradication Theme” was controlling my body, there is absolutely nothing more to say but this the only word: perfect. You will realize how good these guys are after listening to this track, it emulated a chaotic atmosphere while I was listening. It is definitely one of the best tracks on here. The last track from the album “1000 Miles Below” is one of the most intense they have ever written, and also maybe one of the most technical and hard to play and it is used as a vehicle to show their skill.
In the end, I’m not saying they are perfect but this being the band‘s debut album, the good easily outweighs the few, tiny flaws that you can find with the album. Vocalist Dimitris Traskas does a great job throughout the whole album and his voice doesn’t strain nor do the screams feel forced. The growls have the obvious death metal tone to them, and the cleaner vocals has a nu-metal sound to it and Hats off to Michael Karamichalis, who is a real drum champion. For any melodic death metal fan this album can never be disappointing. Nonetheless, this is great, even the front cover is beautiful… Give it a chance folks!

Top tracks that I would recommend from this album are: Vantablack, Blackdrawn Skies, Undiminished, Hearts Turning Black, Deathmask and Eradication Theme.
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Tracklist:

Vantablack (01:51) instrumental
Breathin’ (03:33)
Sound of Bleeding (04:03)
Blackdrawn Skies (05:51)
Deathmask (04:42)
Hearts Turning Black (04:47)
Embracing Darkness (04:40)
What I Am (05:12)
Scavengers (05:19)
Undiminished (05:48)
Eradication Theme (04:47)
1000 Miles Below (04:17)

Rating: 8/10 – Priyan T.