Trail Of Tears – Blood Stained Endurance (2009)

Ronny Thorsen comes back with his band Trail Of Tears featuring a completely re-vamped lineup and brings us “Blood Stained Endurance”. After the whole band walked out on Ronny before the promotion of “Existentia” and rumors that the band split up, the band came back stronger than ever in the second half of 2007. Fast forward time to 2009 and we have the first recording of that lineup as a band.

I’ve always been a fan of Trail of Tears since “Disclosure In Red” and I like how they have been progressing slowly in their music. No drastic changes or electro albums in the middle, just solid releases that follow each other to perfection. “Blood Stained Endurance” follows the same path as its predecessors and provides a few fresh elements to the traditional Trail Of Tears sound.

I’m always a sucker for bands featuring the “beauty and the beast” style of vocals and ToT executes it perfectly, even tough some of the male vocals are more harsh than guttural. Catherine Paulsen’s (yes, she is back!) vocals provide the perfect complement to Ronny’s vocals, and they stand alone perfectly as well.

The music is top notch featuring very diverse passages within the album; fast songs with some down tempo songs here and there. All musicians show mastery of their instruments and they all complement each other, there is no single element of this release that is extremely highlighted throughout the whole album. They all blend in perfect harmony making “Blood Stained Endurance” a very solid and aggressive Gothic Metal album.

I noticed a few electronic elements here and there that provide some freshness to the music and add an extra dimension to the bands already amazing sound. Solid musicianship and good song writing take in this release clearly show why Trail Of Tears is one of the elite bands of the genre.

I must say that I’m greatly impressed by this album, and I would definitely recommend this release to all fans of the band and fans of the genre. Blood Stained Endurance is a great release by a great band and should not be missed by anybody.

Release: June 2,2009

Country: Norway