Mary's Blood - Confessions (Review)

A little more than a year has passed since the release of the album Revenant, as Mary's Blood has once again released a full-length album. I really respect such productivity. However, a large amount of work is often compensated for by its low level. And before listening to the Confessions album, I really didn’t want to draw such conclusions about Mary's Blood. However, this is not so simple as you think.

My Rating: 76/100 Best song: Mermaid Serenade

I think the composer's decisions are strange. General idea is interesting, but elaboration and implementation raises too many questions. Actually, the album structure looks like this: metalcore patterns on extended range guitar (2 track), something melodic (5 track), something melodic and fast (3 track), something not quite clear with a complex rhythm and sitar (4 tracks), pop songs in the style of Scandal (6, 8 tracks), something epic (7, 10 tracks), high-speed hard-n-heavy (9 track), and at the end - a song with a "moaning" vocal and a few tempo changes. The result is an album in which you expect something special and ... you not wait. Seriously, the contrasts game at the beginning promises something incredible and unforgettable, but in the last track you just hear the last track.

Vocalist continues my review. My opinion of the vocalist remains neutral again. However, it's worth noting a very large variety of vocal parts. In album you can often hear the contrasts game - vocalist's abilities allow you to apply such methods of solving artistic tasks. I was even surprised by the recitative in track 9 - I already thought that I would never hear it.

Instrumental parts - everything is more interesting here. Guitar, as usual, sounds great. I most liked one riff on extended range guitar in 2nd track - I had long been expecting something similar from Saki. However, guitar riffs have changed somewhat - in some places more syncopation. The only thing that I don’t really like is that the guitar solos are different too. There are not very bright guitar solos here, although they have unusual guitar effects. Rhythm section - everything has always been perfect here. And this album is no exception. In this album about the bassist you can write more words. Intro in 5 track sounds interesting, where the bass is louder than the guitar. In addition, bassist's parts as a whole is quite complex and interesting. About drummer you can say about the same. A very large variety and a very high intensity of drums - these words will not describe even a hundredth part of the entire work of a drummer. The exception is track 5 - in it are too simple rhythms. Separately, I would like to mention additional (for metal) instruments. I don't quite like this approach to additional instruments. For example, in album Countdown To Evolution (Black Cat song) there is a Hammond organ with 4 different articulations. Here the whole album is a music box at the beginning of 1st track, a scale on a sitar (4 track) and several chords on organ.

These girls really know how to surprise. And in this album, they were able to surprise, even in such an unusual way. Here you can see that this work they want to say something different, compared with the previous ones. However, the change in general idea was not the best for them. No, the idea itself is interesting and, if they develop it, it will be very cool. But still it's noticeable that they hurried: 11 songs per year is a very short time for the full production cycle. And I’m willing to bet that if this album was not released in summer of 2019, but in summer of 2020, then there was a much better realization for these ideas. But now it's a given. One can only hope that this album is just a transitional moment between the remnants of a happy youth and something fundamentally new.