We’ll be honest, we love a name with dual meanings, and Chicago thrashers Bloodletter have a good one, both meanings being very metal. But, hey, this frisky quartet—Pat Armamentos (guitar), Pete Carparelli (vocals/guitar), Tanner Hudson (bass), Zach Sutton (drums)—have more to offer than just a kick-ass name, as evidenced by their upcoming third full-length, A Different Kind of Hell, which we’re debuting here in its glorious entirety. For their third album, Bloodletter opted to create a concept album with a story (explained below). Musically, though, this ripper stands just fine on its own, not burdened by trying to shoehorn music to concept. No, these 11 tracks blaze away with glorious harmonic guitar leads, a relentless and efficient rhythm section and a vocalist with just enough melody; the story is just a bonus feature on top of an already solid album.
A Different Kind of Hell was recorded and mixed by Peter Carparelli and Bloodletter at Haunted Hill Recordings, and was mastered by Matt Engstrom of Burn the Furniture Studios. It’s set for release July 21 on vinyl, CD, cassette and digitally via Wise Blood Records and you can preorder it here. Also, checkout the “Summer ov Thrash” live dates Bloodletter are playing with label mates GraveRipper (listed below the Bandcamp player).
This is what Pguitarist/vocalist Pete Carparelli had to say about the new album:
“A Different Kind of Hell was a good challenge for us. We wanted to take our sound further, make things more epic and adventurous, but keep the core elements of our sound in for this record. We decided to make this a concept record too, which helped give the songs a more focused sound. Writing music and lyrics set to a theme really kept things on track but provided plenty of room to put our own spin on this story.
The album is based on the journey of a lone adventurer, who eventually falls victim to a malevolent force. They are driven to madness and give in to the dark magicks that have taken over their soul. Each song relives a part of their nightmare and their descent into Hell. ADKOH is very different thematically from our previous record Funeral Hymns, where the lyrics focused on confronting the darkest pits of one’s mental health and struggles. ADKOH isn’t so much a personal outlet for anyone in the band, but a way to tell people what might scare us the most about meeting a fiery end.”
