{"id":733588,"date":"2026-06-13T07:56:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T07:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/733588\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T07:56:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T07:56:30","slug":"bloodhunter-sons-of-the-abandoned-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/733588\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloodhunter – Sons of the Abandoned Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Formed in 2014 in the wake of the success of Arch Enemy, Spain\u2019s Bloodhunter joined the ranks of melodeath bands featuring attractive leading ladies who snarl and growl rather than sing like Disney princesses. Lokasenna favorably reviewed their sophomore record, The End of Faith<\/a>, writing that while it wasn\u2019t particularly innovative, Bloodhunter sounded promising enough to give them a potentially bright future. The nine years since have sown significant changes, with a new bassist and drummer, as well as an additional guitarist; founding guitarist Dani Arcos and vocalist Diva Satanica serve as the only common links between these two albums. Sons of the Abandoned, their fourth, seeks to live up to the bright future Lokasenna prophesied.<\/p>\n

Sons of the Abandoned proves a highly energetic affair, having a melodic bent in the vein of At the Gates or In Flames. Tracks waver between high octane (\u201cThe Devils Own,\u201d \u201cHuman Insecticide\u201d) and mid-tempo (\u201cThe Outspoken,\u201d \u201cEphemeral Youth\u201d). While plenty heavy, Bloodhunter fall just shy of brutal, with a much lighter intensity than the comps listed above, though they do occasionally ramp things up. \u201cThe Devils Own\u201d gets the album off to a nice start, with its gentle melodic lead jumping into some of the record\u2019s most brutal cuts. It\u2019s a really good song that reveals a melodic side underneath that tough exterior. From there, tunes largely shed the brutality and drop to a slightly slower tempo before ending on another fast and brutal high note on the thrashy Annihilator cover, \u201cHuman Insecticide.\u201d The mid-tempo stuff allows Bloodhunter to dive more deeply into their melodic side, though with mixed results.<\/p>\n

Lokasenna\u2019s critique about a lack of innovation still applies, as Bloodhunter stick to pretty standard riffs, but they do flash some impressive melodies here and there. Bloodhunter save their most memorable melodies for the choruses. The best comes from \u201cSons of the Abandoned,\u201d transforming a pretty standard song into something more rewarding thanks to a lead I find myself frequently whistling. Not all leads successfully push the bar, however. \u201cEphemeral Youth\u201d similarly features a pretty good lead, but the tune ultimately grows a bit tiresome thanks to too much repetition. Sadly, the mid-album tracks lack the hooks to stir any interest. Even a rather elaborate solo on \u201cNo One Beats Death\u201d does very little to resuscitate the record\u2019s earlier vitality. Bloodhunter invite Laura Guldemond (Burning Witches<\/a>) to handle cleans for a rather disappointing chorus on \u201cThe Path that Never Ends\u201d in yet another unsuccessful bid to spruce up this stretch of songs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sons of the Abandoned sounds really good, thanks to some great production values and solid performances. While the guitar parts don\u2019t always wow, the addition of guitarist Guillermo Starless opens up space for a heftier, more interesting guitar presence. It\u2019s true that Arcos and Starless could inject a little more creativity into their riffs, but they still have plenty of really good stuff. There\u2019s a lead on \u201cMasters of Deceive\u201d that has a smooth jazz vibe that displays their ability to get creative, and an instrumental interlude has some lovely arpeggios that I can\u2019t help but think could have gone to more use throughout Sons of the Abandoned. The mix also allows Fabian Tejeda\u2019s bass to breathe, with some gentleness on the quieter interlude and then some hectic noodling on \u201cHuman Insecticide.\u201d Finally, Diva Satanica serves the record well as frontwoman. She has some capable growls, switching to Trevor Strnad-like snarls now and then, even if she lacks the brutality of some of her contemporaries.<\/p>\n

While Sons of the Abandoned does scratch that melodic itch here and there, it also gives me a better appreciation of the creative riffs that At the Gates recently displayed<\/a>. I\u2019m a sucker for a good melodic lead, so I\u2019m willing to overlook some shortcomings if the record has enough of them. Bloodhunter meet this criteria a little more than half the time. There are plenty of songs I\u2019d be happy to put into a playlist, but unfortunately, too many are forgettable. While LP number four hasn\u2019t yet delivered on Lokasenna\u2019s hope for a bright future, Bloodhunter certainly has it in them to deliver a killer record.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

Rating: 2.5\/5.0
DR: 10 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: ROAR! Rock of Angels Records<\/a>
Websites: Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a> | Official Site<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: June 12th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formed in 2014 in the wake of the success of Arch Enemy, Spain\u2019s Bloodhunter joined the ranks of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[20172,10968,313153,157472,41318,64,63,354778,134,354779,351402,174282,41347,136,228,229,354780,354781,285741],"class_list":["post-733588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-2-5","tag-10968","tag-annihilator","tag-arch-enemy","tag-at-the-gates","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bloodhunter","tag-entertainment","tag-in-flames","tag-jun26","tag-melodeath","tag-melodic-death-metal","tag-music","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-roar-rock-of-angels-records","tag-sons-of-the-abandoned","tag-spanish-metal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}