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Bloody Heels: Rotten Romance
Bloody Heels - Rotten Romance Album Art

Bloody Heels: Rotten Romance

Melodic Metal Rock/AOR
4.5/5.0

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Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 08.06.2022 | Released: 10.06.2022

From little Latvia, Bloody Heels made their first appearance in 2014 with their EP Summer Nights. Two long-players would follow. The most recent from 2020, Ignite The Sky. With these albums under their belts, Bloody Heels has done some significant touring throughout Eastern Europe and beyond. Now the foursome returns with their third studio album Rotten Romance, once more on the Frontiers Music label.

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Bloody Heels

From the start, Bloody Heels established their musical cred by revisiting classic melodic hard rock with an emphasis on strong vocal harmonies, epic guitar solos, and simply effortless rhythm and groove. Then they wrapped it up arena AOR accessibility. Ignite The Sky was a fine portrait of the same. Now, according to the band and PR material, fans and listeners are in for a slight swerve in musical focus. But don't get your bullet belt tangled in a bunch. Everything is just fine.

Press info suggests that Bloody Heels is taking their classic roots and dropping in some progressive nuances. How so? Perhaps with a touch of atmosphere from synths, and some lingering piano lines, and some breakdowns that settle with the same components wrapped up in vocals and then lead to terrific guitar solos. A singular example is the title cut, Rotten Romance. Perhaps more subtle is The Velvet which, for some slight reason, reminded of early new wave perhaps even some Duran Duran. I've never liked that band, but for my money Bloody Heels is adding those synthetic nuances to their rock with some aplomb. Something moving more towards modern rock with rough riffs wrapped in atmospheric density is Hour Of Sinners. Within the breakdown, the rhythm section gets the go ahead before the guitar solo shreds with enthusiasm. It effing rocks. But so do some other songs, in a more classic rock fashion, like Dream Killers or Crow's Lullaby, both with tense riffs and song density. Good stuff, the latter perhaps more metalish. Then there's Burning Bridges which is fast, heavy and, perhaps, with some punk nods in the arrangement.

Whether Rotten Romance is a dramatic turn of events or simply some creative exploration, Bloody Heels delivers another solid studio album of melodic metal rock now injected with some novel nuances. Recommended. It's yours to investigate.




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The Take Away

Whether Rotten Romance is a dramatic turn of events or simply some creative exploration, Bloody Heels delivers another solid studio album of melodic metal rock now injected with some novel nuances. Recommended. It's yours to investigate.

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