Power metal from Greece. Who the hell expects power metal from Greece. In a country where it’s sunny and hot about 300 (maybe 250) days a year, apparently there are four people by the name of Bloodstained who feel the need to make music about warriors, battles, swords and hell. That alone cuts them slack. If I lived in Greece, and made music, it would be pretty damn far from power metal, it would probably be some authentic Greek acoustic guitarmusic. Back to Bloodstained and the conclusion to this intro. The music is quite allright, what do you know?!

The intro however is really, really stupid. It is so stupid you almost start to laugh like an idiot and run around in circles whilst swinging your arms, grinning like a mad men and screaming EEAEAYAYAYEEAEE! It is a high toned, fast guitar loop, set against an idiotic drum rhythm lasting twelve seconds.
The second song, the first actual one, luckily is just old school power metal with good diverse riffing, the globally known high-pitched voice, and decent –double bassed- drums. The song ‘Prisoner Of Time’ is a little slower, with an almost blues-like part towards the end –a slow guitar solo, soft drums, a clean bass sound and nothing else, very nice. The rest of the album follows the usual power metal path with some odd paces and rhythms a bit reminiscent of Meshuggah here and there.

Those little things keep it interesting.
The production is audibly quite cheap, but it is suitable for the music. The sound is kind of hollow, but it does sound the way it is supposed to. Than there’s still the fact that they are from Greece. Because of that fact, I expected tons of spelling mistakes, and indeed I got them. If they would’ve had me as their editor it would have been much better (no “The time is finally now as we begin to imagine”), but maybe the awful and awkward spelling in the lyrics is not a bad thing. Power metal doesn’t thrive on brilliant lyrics anyway, and the mood and atmosphere of the music come across very well, due to the great guitarplay and just all round very good instrumental skills, with good high-pitched singing with a certain degree of variety.
That leaves me to conclude that Bloodstained’s “Greetings From Hell” (are they even serious about that title?) is a pretty good album. A lot of albums I have reviewed in the past have gone into my CD rack and never came out again, but somehow, this one will. If you see this album somewhere for a price not too high, and you’re okay about with power metal and old school metal, buy it, it will be a nice addition to your collection. And they are from Greece, I mean…