Tag Archives: 3 Inches of Blood

Friday Morning Metal – 3 Inches of Blood No More

Well this week has a bit of a bummer to it. 3 Inches of Blood announced they are disbanding after a farewell show November 7th in Vancouver. So today we get to celebrate the 10-ish years of deadly sinners destroying orcs while storming Juno beach on the lookout for the execution tank.

Advance and Vanquish

Advance And Vanquish was the first 3 Inches of Blood album I heard, upon the insistence of my garage-rock scenester friends. I’ve already posted about it previously so I won’t get into the nitty gritty. But back in 2004, most of the metal you could find in the states either had some guy rapping in it, or was downtuned to hell & back and sounded like butt. So Advance and Vanquish was a breath of fresh air, a startling reminder that metal can still be big and bold and feature a singer who could probably shatter glass with his voice.

Oh they also integrated a 3-song epic about greed & pirates called “Upon the Boiling Sea.” Pirate metal!

Deadly Sinners:

Destroy the Orcs:

Wykydtron:

Fear on the Bridge:

Fire up the Blades

3 Inches of Blood know how to start an album. Through the Horned Gates is a slow burner instrumental intro, waiting to kick you in the teeth with Night Marauders. And Goatriders’ Hoard continues the speed, with fantastic drum & guitar work. And the singing! So awesome. I’ve written about this album previously, too, but it’s just so great. This was the last album featuring Jamie Hooper, who provided the growly screaminess to Cam Pipes’, well, pipes.

Goatriders’ Hoard:

Assassins of the Light:

Great Feasting Hall:

Night Marauders:

Here Waits Thy Doom

Here Waits Thy Doom is a solid album, but it’s not really my favorite 3 Inches of Blood album. The sound is a bit stripped down, and gives an early 80s Judas Priest vibe. Battles & Brotherhood leads the charge, with some great dueling guitarmonies and fantastic vocals from Mr. Pipes. This is the first album with Justin Hagberg providing backing vocals, giving it a different growl than what Hooper had done on the previous two albums.

Battles & Brotherhood:

Call of the Hammer: (best curling/shuffleboard song ever)

Snakefighter:

Execution Tank:

Long Live Heavy Metal

Just hearing the dueling guitar riffs starting off Metal Woman is enough to get me stoked. Then there’s a kickass bass groove, then drums, then a badass scream! Long Live Heavy Metal is the standard other bands should strive for: bombastic, powerful, driving songs with vocals that keep the momentum going. This album even features a song about hockey players beating each other up. Which is the most Canadian Metal thing ever.
Their homage to Dio, Look Out, is such a tremendous song, with a killer riff and great links to all of his great work. And the organ work toward the end is just icing on the cake.

Metal Woman:

Lookout:

Leave it on the Ice:

Storming Juno:

It was amazing to see these guys perform live. Bellingham’s not necessarily known as a heavy metal town, usually shows in town are hip-hop, nostalgia acts, or local jam bands. And even still, 3 Inches of Blood sold out the shows they played here. I’m sure proximity to Vancouver helped a bit, but there was still a strong contingent of local metal heads at their shows.

Friday Morning Metal – Nekrogoblikon – Powercore – AND MORE!

Hey did you know if you search the youtube for Halloween-related metal, all you get is a bunch of operatic bullshit covers of some song from Nightmare Before Christmas? Yeah I’m not sure what that’s all about. So I decided to hit up some Nekrogoblikon, because Jon Goblikon is awesome. Here’s powercore, which has some of that nu metal singing and stuff, but there’s a goblin! A real ass goblin!

Ooh and one of the related songs is from “A Band of Orcs”! They are very much thrashy deathy metal, which seems appropriate for Orcs. The music is decent enough, though it’s downsampled so horrifically that you can’t make out the low end too much. And it was posted in 2012. Whoopie!

And one more for good measure, since a bunch of my friends are playing that new Lord of the Rings game. And blasting Destroy the Orcs while destroying, well, orcs. Here’s a live one, proving Cam Pipes is worthy of the metal vocalist god pantheon:

And the recorded version which sounds bigger and bolder!

Favorite Metal Albums – 3 Inches of Blood – Fire Up the Blades

3IOB-BLADES-COVERIntro tracks are part and parcel of heavy metal. They set a crazy tone for what you’re about to hear, and sometimes they actually fit the mood of the album. 3 Inches of Blood have a perfect intro for their album “Fire up the Blades” with Through the Horned Gate. If electric guitars and distortion existed in the middle ages, this is what you play to amp up the soldiers before battle. The slow build and introduction of heavy snare adds tension, like you’re about to engage in epic combat, possibly with an axe, against an hordish onslaught of… hordes.
And then Night Marauders kicks you square in the teeth with Jamie Hoopers screamy intro. This song runs in high gear the entire time, a good indicator that this album won’t let up until you pop the headphones off. The drum work is complex, mixing in triplets of double kick along with standard patterns. The guitars are split into the left and right channel, so you can get a better sense of their interplay, with Cam Pipes leading the harmonizing during verses.
Now your brain is revved up and running at 100 mph, so you figure they’ll drop a slower metal track. Sucks to be you; Goat Riders Horde is ready to launch you into the stratosphere. The crazy guitar intro with a little cymbal splash just really sets you up to kick even more ass. Pretty sure one time seeing 3 Inches of Blood live, a buddy who hadn’t seen them before yelled to me “HOLY SHIT THAT GUY SINGS HIGH.” Then Goat Riders Horde came on and he yelled “HOLY SHIT HE SINGS EVEN HIGHER!” Oh and the transitions, the ones that sound like shifting gears after solos, it’s like you needed to go a little faster and they were the kick in the ass you needed all along. I do feel impervious to fire and steel while listening to this song.
The “slow” song on the album is Great Hall of Feasting, featuring the great line “clean the blood stain from your blade before coming in.” It’s still rife with double kick, but heavy guitar syncopation gives it a unique feel. Also I think there’s cowbell up in there. If you’re trying to plan a workout around this album, this is the “take it easy” portion where you end up still putting up a PR of some sort.
Then there’s Assassins Of the Light, starting with what sounds like a beer cracking. These guys are from B.C. so I assume it’s a Kokanee. It could be a Molson, maybe a Rainier, I don’t judge. The guitarmonies play incredibly well, filling out the sound while not imposing that wall of noise lesser bands seem to think is important.

The album brings a fantastic, high speed power metal that holds up to multiple listenings. Just look at all the blades up on the cover. You know it’s going to be some great heavy metal.

Key Tracks: Night Marauders, Goat Riders Horde, Demons Blade, Assassins of the Light

Favorite Metal Albums – 3 Inches of Blood – Advance and Vanquish

The first time I heard 3 Inches of Blood, I was hanging out with some friends in college. We called these kids scenesters at the time, but I guess they were a modern equivalent to hipsters. They liked girljeans and were fellas. Anyway, they listened to a lot of hardcore punk and screamo and stuff like Gorilla Biscuits & the lesser known Gayrilla Biscuits. So when they told me they found a band I might like, I was a little hesitant. Then I heard the opening to Deadly Sinners and I realized they were actually being good friends.

Hailing from the frozen tundra of Vancouver, BC, 3 Inches of Blood bring some of the biggest, fastest, and loudest power metal/heavy metal/priest-era metal you can find. Cam Pipes has one of the best names for a metal vocalist, and he delivers high octane and high octave chops that hearken back to the days when metal gods roamed the earth.
And Advance and Vanquish is probably my favorite album out there. Its opening track, Fear on the Bridge, is part of a multi-song epic, Upon the Boiling Sea, and the sound of a cannon being lit and fired is a solid way to drop you into imagery of pirates sinking Spanish brigs and looting their booty. Haha booty lootin.

As great as Fear on the Bridge is, I feel like the true intro track/single is Deadly Sinners. The intro is huge, dropping you into driving drums, dueling guitars and a great growl of “C’mooooooooooon” by original secondary singer Jamie Hooper. Also enemies of metal, your death is our reward. Pipes’ falsetto just ties everything together, setting the tone for an album full of face-melting metal.

The album does merge a bit of hardcore punk with the metal themes that will take hold in future albums. Dominion of Deceit seems to walk the line between the two genres with a deft skill. Though really the guitar harmony and double kick helps reinforce the metal awesomeness of 3 Inches of Blood.

I often refer to how quickly a song can get me going the speed limit on a bicycle. Usually it involves trying to pace the snare hits, since if I go for the bass drum I’ll have a heart attack within a block. Advance and Vanquish regularly gets me pacing and/or passing traffic, like some sort of heavy metal bicycling dbag.

Key tracks: Deadly Sinners, Destroy the Orcs, Wykydtron, Revenge is Vulture

Friday Morning Metal – Gypsyhawk – Hedgeking

Last weekend was a metalpalooza. Friday I saw Witchburn and 3 Inches of Blood lay waste to the Wild Buffalo, then Saturday I saw Trollfest, Alestorm, and a band I hadn’t heard before destroy El Corazon. That much metal in that short a period would take down lesser men.

That band I hadn’t heard before, Gypsyhawk, was pretty interesting. I was in the bar area, and they don’t pipe music in through the audio system, so all I could hear was muffled grooves. It was like an AM radio playing KISS at first. But when we got out to the stage, I was able to hear them in all their glory. Pumped out from a couple Marshall stacks was a brand of late 70s hard rock that smacked of awesome proto metal. So awesome. Also, they sang about goblins & dungeons & dragons & shit. So they’re metal.

The guitarists are pretty awesome, and even during the set you could hear the locked in guitarmonies and whatnot. Very fun stuff, I totally recommend them.

Here is “Hedgeking”

Friday Morning Metal – 3 Inches of Blood – Lookout (Live at the Mushroom)

They are back! Tonight! At the Wild Buffalo! 3 Inches of Blood are in town to melt faces and blow minds.

And last week Metal Injection put up a video of them performing Lookout at the Mushroom. I guess it’s a studio space or something. I am not good with locations, but they SHRED hard. Also Hagberg in a Hawaiian shirt is just awesome, it’s like he’s channeling Evil Raffi from “I Get Wet” era Andrew WK!

Friday Morning Metal – 3 Inches Of Blood

Tonight, at The Wild Buffalo, 3 Inches of Blood will be melting faces with killer solos, driving people to the point of insanity with massive double kick, and all out destroying Whatcom County with phenomenal metal. I didn’t realize until yesterday that I’d been loving the speed/thrash/power metal stylings of these fantastic Canadians for 7 years. When you get older, time compresses a bit. But 3 Inches of Blood have been a force in my life for quite some time and a major factor in what helps me bike like a crazy dumb asshole from time to time. So they get the same treatment I give the Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. An entire post dedicated to their majesty.

Deadly Sinners – This is the first song of theirs I heard. Ever. The combo of driving drums and Cam Pipes scream on the intro was more than enough to sell me their sound. And honestly, any song that has “Enemies of metal, your death is our reward” as a lyric is going to be a top song in my book. Sidenote, the drum line in this song is what I think of when I want to sprint on my bike. I think first time I listened to it on a work commute I got in 4 minutes early.

Destroy the Orcs – I had been listening to these guys for a while, and Destroy the Orcs was such a fast power metal anthem. By the way, orcs are dicks so destroying them is okay. But then I saw The Comedians of Comedy and at one point Brian Posehn popped in his headphones and the audio kicked over to the opening riff for this song and I realized these guys were WAY larger than just being a pacific northwest metal band.

Goatriders Horde – This is still while Jamie Hooper was their secondary singer. Holy shit does that guy have a great scream. And coupled with Cam Pipes, that is a metal singer name if I ever saw one. I hope to one day be both impervious to fire and to steel. Maybe then I can join the goatriders’ horde.

In the Time of Job when Mammon was a Yippie – This is a cover of a Lucifer’s Friend song, and shows off the band’s versatility. The combo of the tight performance with Pipes’ vocals and the organ is something amazing, and I kind of wish they’d take their organist on tour. You don’t hear a lot of organ in heavy metal outside of like Deep Purple, I think it needs to come back.

Battles & Brotherhood – Battles & Brotherhood felt so much like a straight up speed/power metal track, as did the entire Here Waits Thy Doom album. It had a very stripped down sound like earlier Judas Priest, which made this album stand out among the excess of comparative albums at the time. Sometimes you just need fast music with crazy vocals and noodly solos.

Silent Killer – They’ve said it was kind of built on the game Assassin’s Creed, but Silent Killer stands on its own as a fantastic metal track. From the crazy drumming to hold everything together to Pipes falsetto signalling tonal changes, the entire song sounds like the perfect theme to an early 80s movie of a drifter hired on as an assassin.

Metal Woman – There are a few ways to start a metal song. Melodic chord progression, dualing guitar harmonizing, bass solo, drum solo, nuts ass falsetto scream. 3 Inches of Blood combine all of these into one amazing song in Metal Woman. I’ve been told by more than a couple friends that they want the metal woman’s van.

Lookout – Few bands can really do a proper tribute to Dio. Tenacious D did one in their first album. I think 3 Inches of Blood did better by Lookout. Balls out metal with heavy reference to Dio’s work, this song is in heavy rotation in my various metal playlists.

Leather Lord – This is the most Judas Priest Painkiller song from 3 Inches of Blood, and their choice for the music video is very fitting. Crazy fast, fantastic vocals, and incredibly tight, this is the song you want to blast during your high speed car chase.

Friday Morning Metal – 3 Inches of Blood – Battles And Brotherhood

Friday November 30th, at the Wild Buffalo of Bellingham, Washington, 3 Inches of Blood will be kicking all sorts of ass up on stage. I’ve shared a buttload of their videos, mostly because they’re keeping the tradition of fast drums, crazy guitars, and gnarly high vocals alive.

So here’s some Battles & Brotherhood. There’s a ladyfight in the video too!

Friday Morning Metal – 3 Inches of Blood – Leather Lord

3 Inches of Blood, those Canadian masters of power metal, have another video out, this time for Leather Lord. It totally reminds me of older metal videos, with the band shredding over a trippy background. Then Pipes’ eyes go white on a high note and it’s even more amazing.

Friday Morning Metal – 3 Inches of Blood – Lookout

3 Inches Of Blood’s “Long Live Heavy Metal” is such a fantastic album, a total throwback to crazy falsetto, dueling guitar harmonies (guitarmonies!), double kick until your face falls off, and wicked bass grooves. So clearly they’ll have a song paying tribute to Ronnie James Dio. Because he slayed the dragon each and every night, it was his right.