Bloedmaan formed in 2022 and surprised the world in 2023 with their almost perfect debut album, “Castle inside the eclipse”. The solo project of Rönarg (Antzaat, Ars Veneficium) continue to impress not only on record, but also on stage. Delivering a memorable debut performance at the Unholy Sabbath festival early 2024, followed by a short stint supporting Marduk. And now in the dying moments of 2025 Bloedmaan delivers the follow up to their debut album, “Vampyric War in Blood” through Immortal Frost Productions.
According to the Immortal Frost Productions bandcamp page:
“Rönarg will take you on a deeper journey with Bloedmaan, into the the realms of Vampirism entangled with raw obscure melodic black metal tunes” “Bloedmaan has once again delivered a masterpiece of a record, a great follow up to the unbelievable nearly perfect debut full length album. An album filled with melodies, dancing bass tones, destructive drums and tormented vocals! By far, Vampyric Melodic Black Metal at its finest!”
Is it? Let’s find out.
First thing, the artwork looks amazing. Especially on the 12” vinyl format. A handpainted work by Rönarg himself.
Now on to the music, we start with a haunting 80’s horror instrumental intro which sets the tone for the album perfectly. Leading it into the first real (title) track “Vampyric War in Blood”. And it sets of right where we left on “castle inside the eclipse” with haunting catchy riffs and melodies, thundering blastbeats and the oldschool vampiric rasping style of singing by Rönarg. With is more than 7 minutes it never feels to long because the there is a good balance fast and midtempo parts supplemented with outstanding riffs and melodies. The same can be said about “Return to Castlevania”, good riffs, melodies and a strong vocal delivery of Rönarg.
The next track “The clocktower” on the other hand, is a slow paced haunting song spanning almost 7 minutes again fully exploring the vampire/Castlevania theme. A very narrative driven track which makes you almost believe the singer is an actual vampire…
With “what a horrible night to have a curse” we return to fast blastbeats and riffing. “Commander of the Spectral Forces” we once again return to a more midtempo song and is the first song on this album that does not impress me that much as the other songs. Not bad, but just not as gripping as the rest. After a long instrumental outro with some good riffs and melodies we return to the encore of the album: “Rise of the bloodmoon” a very strong fast with once again, yes I’m repeating myself, good catchy riffs and excellent vocal delivery. A very worthy sendoff to a very good second full length of Bloedmaan.
So to summarize, the second album of Bloedmaan, was it as good as the first one? Yes it is! Of course not as surprising, because by now we know what (and want to) expect from Bloedmaan.
But Rönarg once again delivered a masterpiece of vampyric Black Metal.
Really looking forward seeing them live once again at Diabolical Echos, 9th of may at Willemeen in Arnhem.
85/100
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