Tag Archives: fire up the blades

Friday Morning Metal – 3 Inches of Blood No More

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.

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

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Intro 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

Friday Morning Metal – 3 Inches of Blood – Goatriders Horde

Jono Manion

I know that guy!